Battlestar Sword
by monbade
Summary: Battlestar Sword is being sent to the breakers, she never makes it there. Or she does, but with lots of friends under the command of Commander Jason Wallington.
1. chapter 0 Prologue

**Battlestar Sword**

**Prologue**

**The Cylons were created by Man.**

**They were created to make life easier on the Twelve Colonies.**

**And then the day came when the Cylons decided to kill their masters.**

**After a long and bloody struggle, an armistice was declared.**

**The Cylons left for another world to call their own.**

**A remote space station was built...**

**...where Cylon and Human could meet and maintain diplomatic relations.**

**Every year, the Colonials send an officer.**

**The Cylons send no one.**

**No one has seen or heard from the Cylons in over forty years....**

**Until Now.**

**Picon Fleet Headquarters:**

**Planet Pisces:**

**10 days before the attack:**

**Admiral Nagala's office**

Admiral Nagala looked up from his desk, as Colonel Jason Wallington walked into the office, came to attention, and saluted.

Giving a quick return salute, he ordered, "Sit down, Wallington."

"Yes, Sir," Jason said and sat down in the proffered chair.

Jason watched as his superior officer looked at the folder in front of him and shuffled the papers.

Finally, after a few minutes, he said, "You wanted to see me, Sir?"

Admiral Nagala looked up at the officer, cleared his throat and replied, "Yes, Wallington. You have been promoted to the rank of Commander, as of this date by order of the Admiralty. You are then to proceed onboard the Battlestar _Sword, _and assume command of the ship." Admiral Nagala picked up the folder and tossed the document portfolio onto the desk in front of Jason, and continued, "Your orders are to deliver the _Sword_ to these coordinates. She is being sold to the scrap company Valcin Recoveries…" seeing the look on the young man's face, he quickly added, "Yes, your father's company. He won the bid to dispose of the _Sword_ for us_._ As you know, the _Sword_ is one of our _Atlas_ class Battlestar…"

"Sir, she's brand new. Why is the fleet scrapping her?" Jason asked in shock.

The Admiral's face screwed up as though he had bitten into a rotten piece of fruit as he spat out, "Cost cutting. I'm not sure if you kept up with fleet news since you were way out on the red line on the _Pegasus,_ but six months ago, a suspicious explosion ripped through the bow of the ship. They tried to make repairs, but it was reported by the repair docks over at the Scorpion Fleet Shipyards that to repair her, it would be cheaper to build a new one, especially with her central computer system destroyed. So the bean counters ordered her to be scrapped, and your father won the scrapping bid. Your orders direct you and a skeleton complement of crew to ferry her to the scrap yard for us. You will pick up a full load of munitions at the space dock, and missiles at Ragnar Anchorage Station. You will off-load those missiles and munitions to the missile storage ship _Archon,_ when you arrive at the yards, and they will return them back to Picon Station.

"Once you deliver the _Sword, _you have three months leave to burn, but when you return to Picon, you will be assigned to the Battlestar _Isis_ as her new commanding officer. Since there is enough room on the _Sword,_ your crew's families will be allowed to go, if they wish. Your father has offered the use of the super liner _Picon's Light_ to bring them home. You will also be taking ten other ships to their shipyard for decommissioning, and delivering supplies. The light cruiser _Flak _will escort you. She is to return with you along with a load of special weapons that has been developed by Valcin Weapons Systems. These missiles will be tested by the Battlestar _Mercury_ on the old _Columbia_ class _Goliath_ Battlestar. The _Goliath_ has been moored out by Pandora's Nebula and when you return with the missiles, they will be test fired on her. If all goes to plan, then the new missile system will be purchased from the subsidiary of Valcin Industries."

"I see, Sir. I will have the missiles here on time for you," Jason said as he stood up.

"Your mission orders, and command codes for the _Sword _are in the portfolio_._ Good luck, Commander, and may the Lords of Kobol watch over you," Nagala said as he shook Jason's hand.

**Two hours later,**

**Scorpion Shipyards:**

**Repair Dock Nineteen.**

**Battlestar Sword**

Jason walked onto the command deck of the Battlestar _Sword._ Looking around, he saw that very few of the stations were manned by the crew. With a frown, he looked at the undisciplined crew. Some of the crew were chatting away, while only a few were actually working. He was about to say something when another voice shattered the air.

"Attention on deck!" was shouted by the marine guard at the doorway.

"As you were," Jason ordered as he walked over to the nearest command station and picked up the handset.

"This is Commander Jason Wallington. I'm assuming command of the _Sword _by orders of Admiral Nagala at this time. Colonel Hays will be my Second in Command. As you know, due to the extensive damages to this ship, she has been ordered scrapped. We have three days until we leave for the breakers. Even though this ship is being scrapped, she is still a Colonial warship. Discipline will be enforced throughout the ship. We will be taking supplies onboard to be delivered to Valcin Station for their use. The portside fighter storage will be used for those supplies. Starboard hangar will double up on some of the ship's fighters, while the rest will be kept on the landing bay. Once we deliver the ship, her fighters will be stationed at the Valcin Recoveries repair facilities to ward off some pirates that have been bothering the Tylium mining ships in the area.

"Escort cruiser _Flax_ will be escorting us to the station. I want this ship ready to go in three days. Also, Valcin Recoveries has agreed to allow our families to come with us, so if anyone wants them to come, you have two days to get them onboard and into quarters. Even though this ship is going to the breakers, we will be going armed. So reloading of the ships ammunition will commence in one hour. Carry on!" Jason said.

He hung up the handset and looked at his Executive Officer Sara Hays. Her black hair was tied back in a bun, but he noticed some of it was loose.

"Colonel Hays, it's nice to meet you. First fix your hair and then get the ship up to speed. I'm going down to the Dock master's Office and check on some items my father ordered for Valcin Recoveries," Jason ordered.

"Yes, Sir." Sara said, tucking the loose strands of hair back in place as she picked up the handset and started issuing orders to the crew.

Jason walked out the door, and down the passageway. He was heading for the nearest hatch when he was forced to step around a man dressed as a maintenance worker kneeling in front of one of the door access panel. The black man was pulling components from one of the hatch doors when he neared him. Scattered around him on the deck were at least twenty circuit boards.

"What's wrong with the hatch controls?" Jason asked.

"Sir, I'm changing out the control board. It was sending a bad signal back to DC. We traced it to this panel, and now I'm just replacing the boards," the man replied as he worked.

"Very well, make sure you clean up this mess. Someone could trip on these boards," Jason ordered as he turned and left the ship.

**Two days later.**

**8 Days before attack:**

**Scorpion Shipyards:**

**Battlestar Sword:**

Colonel Sara Hays walked over to the handset after she handed the pad back to Sergeant Billy Wane. Picking up the handset, she dialed the Commander's Office.

"Wallington!" Jason said into the handset.

"Sir, all supplies are loaded. The families, who wished to come, have been given quarters along the central passageway. We have seventy people rotating out to the Valcin Recoveries station onboard as well. The convoy is forming up now. As soon as we're released from the docks, we can get underway," Colonel Hays reported.

"Very well, contact the station, request permission to leave. I'll be right up," Jason said as he hung up the handset.

Standing up, he picked up the files, put them in his wall safe and closed it. Turning, he picked up his cup, and drained his morning juice. He walked out of the office. Nodding to his aide, he left the room and walked across the hall to the CIC. Stepping in, he smiled as he saw that all the stations were manned for the first time.

"Sir, the ship is on internal power and the station has retracted all umbilical cables. All external hatches have been sealed. Water purification capabilities are at full power. All stations are manned for getting underway. Viper squadrons Silver Darts and Golden Darts are on standby for emergency launch if needed. Golden Darts in the starboard bay, Silver in port. All Mark VII's are loaded and ready to go. Raptors are on standby for emergency launch if needed. We have ten extra Raptors and ten Mark VII Vipers loaded for delivery at Valcin Recoveries. Magazines are at one hundred percent with normal loads. Nuclear weapons were sent to Ragnar Anchorage for storage," Colonel Hays reported.

"Very well. Fire starboard thrusters at thirty percent power for one minute, to clear the station. Once that's finished, fire stern thrusters for a full three minutes and bring sublight engines online after that," Jason said as he walked over to the CIC table.

"Starboard thrusters at thirty percent," the helmswoman responded.

Jason felt the huge ship shudder as she gracefully moved away from the dock. Sixty seconds later, they started moving directly ahead at full thruster power. As the counter counted down to zero the ship shuddered and started moving faster.

"Bringing sublight engines online now."

"Very well, Ensign Holloway. Communications, send a message to the convoy to form up on us. We are heading for Ragnar Anchorage to pick up our special weapons and then we'll head for Valcin Recoveries station. Colonel Hays, contact the heavy lifters at Ragnar to start launching their ships. We'll pick them up in ten minutes," Jason ordered.

"Aye, Aye, Sir," Colonel Hays said as she turned and picked up the handset.

"Sir, we've cleared the dock. The convoy has joined up with us," the helmswoman reported.

"Dradis?" Jason asked.

"Dradis is normal. We're ready to jump," Ensign Rick Holloway reported from the FTL station.

"Send coordinates for the jump to all ships. We jump in five minutes."

"Yes, Sir. Contacting all ships now," Rick said as he picked up his handset and started talking into it.

**Scorpion shipyards:**

**Diamond Lounge:**

**End of Ship Dock #1:**

**Five minutes after launch of the Sword.**

"Alfred, did you find out where they're going?" the blond girl asked the number four… called Alfred Black… as she cleaned his table.

"Yes, I have, Lorina. They are going to Valcin Recoveries station to be scrapped. The ship is badly damaged in the bow. Her weapons have been sealed shut, and her special weapons unloaded. She will be easy prey for the attack," the man replied to the beautiful number three. As he wiped his mouth and set the napkin down.

"Good, now if we could only find out where they're located. We need to get a worker…"

"We have a number five that was hired by the company and he shipped out three months ago. He hasn't reported in yet, and we have no idea why." the number three called Lorina Smith replied as she picked up the empty plate and asked in a louder voice, "Can I get you anything else?"

"One of my brothers is on the convoy. He is one of the doctors heading out to the station. I'm sure he will find out what is going on, and will report back. I had better get back to work," Alfred whispered and then in a louder voice he said, "No, thank you. The food was more than enough," as he picked up his repair kit and nodded to the woman.

"Come again," Lorina said as she walked into the kitchen.

**Twenty minutes later.**

**Ragnar Anchorage **

**Battlestar Sword**

Commander Jason Wallington looked at the display as they came out of FTL. On the screens, a dozen heavy lift transports were coming out from the gas giant.

"Contact the transports and have them deliver the weapons to Alpha deck for storage and rearming," Jason ordered.

"Sending your orders, Sir," Communications specialist Oliver Thaddeus replied as he contacted the transports.

Jason watched as the young ensign talked with the incoming ships and then went back to his ship reports that were clipped to a clipboard.

"Sir, the transports report you will have to dock with the station for the specials. They are only carrying standard Anti-air missiles.

"Very well, please notify the convoy we will leave the ships here, and dock with the station," Jason ordered.

"Colonel Hays, have you ever docked with Ragnar Anchorage?" Jason asked.

"No, Sir," Lisa replied as she looked up from the Dradis scans.

"Then it's a good time. Please dock with the station, I need to step next door and check on something," Jason replied as he left the room.

As the doors closed, he heard Lisa giving her orders to the crew. Going into his office, he sat down and brought the CIC up on the screen and watched as Lisa brought the ship into the station's orbit and slowly docked against the side of the station.

Missile reloading tubes slid out and connected to the side of the massive ship. Over the next forty minutes, special weapons were loaded into the ship. Then the tubes slid away, leaving a full load of fifty heavy missiles, and five hundred of the smaller nuclear warheads for the Vipers and Raptors missile magazines.

Fifteen minutes later, the _Sword_ met up with the convoy, FTL coordinates were delivered to the ships and they vanished as the keys were turned.

_**First Edited By Sneakysis**_

_**Final Edit By TeNderLoin **_

Battlestar Galactica™ is a registered trademark and copyright (©) Glen Larson & the SciFi Channel. Thank you to the Battlestar Wiki and The Battlestar Galactica Role Playing Game, Battlestar Prometheus have proven invaluable for the information they contain. All material found in this story is for entertainment purposes. No copyright infringement should be inferred or is intended. Battlestar Sword and all its original characters and story lines presented here are the copyright (©) of their creator (©) 2010.


	2. Chapter 1

**Battlestar Sword**

**Chapter One**

**WAR!**

**The Cylons were created by Man.**

**They were created to make life easier on the Twelve Colonies.**

**And then the day came when the Cylons decided to kill their masters.**

**After a long and bloody struggle, an armistice was declared.**

**The Cylons left for another world to call their own.**

**A remote space station was built...**

**...where Cylon and Human could meet and maintain diplomatic relations.**

**Every year, the Colonials send an officer.**

**The Cylons send no one.**

**No one has seen or heard from the Cylons in over forty years....**

**Until Now.**

**Three days before the attack:**

**Halfway to Valcin Recoveries:**

**Battlestar Sword**

Explosions detonated from several of the command stations on the CIC as the ship came out of FTL. Smoke and flames billowed up from the FTL computer station as the crew scrambled for the extinguishers to put the flames out. Jason rolled over from where'd he had hit the Dradis station and started shouting.

"Get me a damage report. Where's the convoy? Get this smoke out of here and get medical up here we have wounded," he shouted as he stood up, and saw several of the CIC staff down.

"Sir, FTL is down. Doctor Connors reports we have thirteen wounded. No reports of fatalities as of yet. We have a fire in the engine room. The BUSS boards for the FTL exploded. Chief Wallis says he will have to rip out all the boards and part of the line to fix them," Colonel Hays reported as she listened to the handset and then said, "Sir, fire in the galley and pilots lounge on the portside. Fire parties are on the way."

"What the hell happened?" Jason asked as the blowers came on clearing the smoke away.

"Sir, it looks like a power spike went through the control conduits for the FTL. Chief Wallis says at least two days to fix, or twenty seven hours if we can get help from the crew of the _Trawler's Hope_."

"Send a message to the _Trawler's Hope_. The're to dock on our portside. As many of their repair crews as possible are to come aboard and fix this mess," Jason ordered and then he turned to Colonel Hays and said, "Colonel, I want fifteen armed raptors in the air. They and the _Flax _are to escort the rest of the ships to Valcin Recovers. Then the Raptors are to return to us."

"Yes, Sir. I'll notify Hammer she has a mission," she replied and picked up her handset.

Jason watched as several repair techs ran into the room along with medics. Soon the medics were taking the three wounded away as the techs started ripping out boards. One stopped and walked over to Jason and waited.

"Report Ensign…"

"Ensign Myers, Ensign Hank Myers. Sir, this is what blew the FTL," he said and handed the board to his commanding officer.

Jason took the board and looked at it. To him, it looked like a standard board for the ship, "What am I looking at son?" he asked.

"Sir, right here. You see this blue chip?" he asked as he pointed at the chip with a blue band that was burned, and when Jason nodded his head he continued, "Sir, I'm not sure, but I think it's some type of beacon or something."

"Is it a beacon or what?" Jason asked.

"No idea. But it's not fleet. Whoever did this tried to hardwire it in. If I didn't know better, I think someone was trying to find your family's company headquarters."

Jason turned and picked up the handset, "This is Sword flash transmission to all ships. Check your FTL boards for a blue chip…" Turning he said, "Which board?"

"Sir this is the main FTL input board. It's the board that handles the inputting of the FTL destination codes," Ensign Myers reported.

"Thank you ensign," Jason replied as he turned back to the handset and delivered the information on the sabotage. Soon calls were coming from all the ships saying they had found the chip. With the chip extracted, new boards were installed and the nine ships in the convoy along with the _Flax_ and fifteen raptors vanished into FTL.

"Sir the _Trawler's Hope_ has docked with us and repair crews are on the way. Chief Wallis says he has the crews on it. Give him time and he will get the _Sword_ to your father's shipyard," Lisa reported.

"Very well. Tell the CAG I want a CAP around us. Extra fighters in the launch tubes ready to go. I don't know who is responsible, but they won't catch this ship napping," Jason said as he picked up his reports from where they had spilled by his chair.

**Two days before the attack:**

**Past the Red line:**

**Baseship Forty-three:**

**Network room**

The series one model of the humanoid looking Cylons looked at his fellow Cylons and lowered his head, to look back at the information flowing out of the net. He reached out and lowered his hand into the data stream and he smiled as the data poured into him. "The fleet is ready. The ships are armed and fueled. All we need is the resurrection ships to join us from the home world. Do we have the location of all the human Battlestars?" he said as he looked up at the number three across from him.

"We have the locations of all active fleet units. The attack fleets are waiting; our infiltrators have planted the beacons on the active duty ships. Most of the larger civilian ships will have one of us on it to destroy the humans by opening the airlocks or destroying their FTL drives, leaving them to our mercy," the number three reported.

"Good! Then we're agreed that in two days we destroy the humans for their crimes," the one said and pressed his hands back into the stream and closed his eyes.

"_Beware one shall arise to lead them. One will take another to a new home. Death comes to all. End of line," _came from the hybrid.

"What the frak does that mean?" the number one said as he looked over at the hybrid lying in her immersion tank.

"_Danger comes from the dark; beware the light. The sword is mightier than the pen; both can kill just as quickly. End of line."_

"By the gods I wish they would make sense!" one snapped as he turned back to the data stream.

"Don't take the Gods name in vain," three replied as she entered the stream.

**Six hours before the attack:**

**Battlestar Sword, **

Jason walked out on to the bridge and looked around. Technicians were still working on the FTL board. Around the ship, Vipers were flying CAP in case any surprise popped up. "Colonel Hays, situation report," he said as he neared his XO.

"Commander, they say another hour for the new control line, and we shall be up and running. We should be able to fold again," Lisa replied as she handed her commander the reports.

Jason took the clipboard with the reports on it and looked through them quickly, and said, "Good," and stopped as he read one of the reports closely. When should the raptors be back from delivering the fleet to Valcin Recoveries?" he asked.

"If they're on time? They should be…"

"Dradis contact. Many contacts," the Dradis officer reported.

"What are they? What's the count? Have the CAP check them out," Jason ordered as he turned to the CIC as it lit up.

"Fifteen contacts…"

"I have fleet recognition," the Communications Officer said, and then added, "Raptor 2319 is reporting convoy delivered. New contact. Sir, it's the _Flax_ they report they have returned to escort us to the station."

"Very well. Order Hammer to get her birds landed as soon as _Trawler's Hope_ separates from the port landing bay. As soon as the repairs are finished, we're FTLing out. Please contact _Trawler's Hope_ and tell them thank you for the repair work. Orders to the _Flax_ to take station ahead of us at five thousand meters," Jason ordered.

"Yes, Sir," replied Ensign Mark Dorian the communications officer.

Thirty minutes later, Jason watched the monitor as the _Trawler's Hope_ broke away, and the raptors started landed on the flight decks. Walking around the CIC, he waited for the report that the FTL was online again. Several monitors flashed as if they were watching him, and he thought, _'I sure will be glad when I get off this bucket. I swear this ship is haunted,'_ as he remembered the four hundred crewmen who had died in the bow section.

"Sir, FTL is online. Powering up now… FRAK!" Lisa snarled.

"What now?" Jason asked as he looked over at his XO.

"Not sure, power just dropped off from the FTL drive," Lisa reported as she turned and said, "Permission to leave the bridge for the engine room?"

"Get going. Find out what the frak is going on and get your report back up here," Jason ordered.

Lisa turned and ran off the bridge, as the heavy glass doors closed behind her Jason walked over to his chair and sat down. As he went over the rest of the nightly reports, he picked up his coffee and took a sip.

"Sir, Colonel Hays on line three," Ensign Dorian reported.

"Thank you ensign," Jason replied as he picked up his handset and hit the three, "Colonel, report."

"Sir, we blew the main power buss system in the engine room. Four hours to replace and then we'll be good to go," Lisa reported.

"Frak! Well, get enough crew on it. I want it done in two. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes, Sir. Two hours it is," Lisa replied in the handset and hung up.

Setting the handset down, he looked across at the Dradis board and ordered, "Recycle the CAP. Two up, two down for refueling and chow, I want the pilots back in their chairs thirty minutes after they land."

"Yes, Sir. Rotating the CAP," the CAG officer replied.

"Very well, I'll be in my cabin. Have Colonel Hays contact me when the repairs are finished. Major Rivers I want you to get me a status report on the three downed Mk VII Vipers from your squadron. I want to know why they failed launch this morning," Jason ordered as he left the bridge.

Major Athena Rivers looked up from her handset and replied, "Yes, Sir. I'm on it now," as the doors shut.

Jason walked into his quarters, picked up a bottle of water from his fridge and sat down. Opening the top, he pulled the reports over and started going over them. Something was nagging at him. It was like if a feeling of dread was coming over him. Checking of the reports, he never knew being the Commander of a ship would be so paper heavy.

"DADDY!" Olivia shouted as the door slid open and his six year old daughter ran to him.

"Hey, pumpkin. How you doing?" Jason said as he picked up his daughter and swung her around making her giggle.

"Fine. Missed you for breakfast," she said as her mother came in.

Jason looked at his redheaded wife as she came in. Even after three children, she still looked good to him. Standing up, he set his daughter on the edge of the desk, and pulled Mellissa into his arms and gave her a kiss.

"Good morning," he said as they broke apart.

"Morning. We missed you at breakfast… Jason, how much longer are we going to be stuck here?" she asked.

"Hopefully not much longer, the repairs are almost finished. We're just doing some testing before we jump," Jason replied as he reached over and pulled the glass bottle of water out of Olivia's hands.

"Good, I can't wait to see your parents. I know Olivia and Sunny want to see them. As to Alex, he's in heaven with the pilots. You know he wants to follow in your footsteps," she said as she unclipped the childproof cup from her shoulder bag and filled it with water from the bottle.

"Olivia, take this over to daddy's couch, sit and sip it slowly," she said as she handed the cup to their six-year old.

"Ok mommy," the bubbly redhead said as she took the cup, walked over to the couch and sat down.

Mellissa watched her daughter for a second and then turned back to her husband, "So Jason what is really going on?"

"It looks like sabotage. Someone tried to find where dad has his station by tracking the ships in the convoy. For some reason the boards blew and Ensign Myers found an unauthorized chip in the system. He is currently having the crew check all the boards of the ship, but that will take days. He is concentrating on…"

The handset ringing caught his attention, and he picked it up, "Wallington."

"Sir, FTL is online. We're ready to jump," Lisa reported.

"Good, I'll…"

"WHAT? Are you sure?" came through the handset as Colonel Hays was distracted.

"What is it, Colonel?" Jason asked.

"Sir, we are receiving flash priority from Picon fleet. They report they are under heavy attack by the Cylons. Admiral Nagala reports Picon Fleet Headquarters has been nuked. He is transferring his command to the _Atlantia _and is preparing to engage the Cylons. They report thirty Battlestars have been destroyed in the opening salvo."

"What? I'll be right over," Jason replied as he hung the handset up.

"Jason, what's wrong?" Michelle asked.

"Picon Fleet Headquarters was just nuked. The fleet has suffered horrible losses. Stay here, I'll have the kids sent up," Jason ordered.

As Jason left the room, Mellissa sat on the couch and pulled her daughter into her lap.

Walking into the CIC, Jason saw it was a madhouse. The crew was shouting orders as Lisa looked up and saw him. "Status report?" he said as he neared the central Dradis board.

"Sir, Caprica City is gone. President Adar tried to surrender and they nuked the city with a fifty-megaton warhead. We assume everyone is dead in the capital. Fleet units are going off the air. Reports say that the ships are shutting down when they near the enemy ships," Lisa reported.

"Thank you Colonel," Jason replied as he picked up the handset and said, "All hands man your battle stations. Set condition one throughout the ship. I repeat, set condition one throughout the ship. All pilots to their ships. This is not a drill – I repeat, this is NOT a drill. We are jumping for home to help defend the colonies."

"Colonel, set course for home. Notify the _Flax_ to form up ahead of us. We jump in ten minutes," Jason ordered.

"Yes, Sir. Batteries are armed. Civilians are being moved to the internal shelters. Your sons are on their way to your quarters. All crew is at standby for FTL flight," Lisa reported as the noise in the CIC rose.

They listened to the reports come in from fleet ships. How the ships kept shutting down, the destruction of the _Atlantia_ and Admiral Nagala, cities after cities being hit with nuclear death as the counter counted down. Then a message came in from a lone Battlestar.

"Sir, Commander Adama has ordered all fleet units to join up with him at Ragnar Anchorage for a counter attack. Commander Adama says they fleet has been compromised through the Command Navigation Program," Lisa reported.

"Order the CNP shut down on all raptors and Vipers. Contact the _Flax_ and tell them as well," Jason ordered.

"Sir, someone named Roslin has been appointed President of the colonies. She is ordering Adama to rescue as many civilians as possible…"

"Secretary of Education Laura Roslin?" Jason asked.

"Yes, Sir. She is our new President or that's what I understand," Lisa said.

"May the Lord of Kobol help us," Jason replied and then asked, "What's her location?"

"I have their coordinates. They're…"

"Notify the rest of the ships her coordinates and prepare to jump," Jason ordered as he gripped the rail to the Dradis board.

"Inputting them into the FTL drive now," Lisa replied.

"Jump!"

The _Sword_ appeared in the middle of a fleet of civilian ships under attack from Cylon Heavy Raiders. Several ships were drifting as the fighters ripped them apart with their cannons.

"Dradis contact, I have twenty Cylon raiders attacking thirty civilian ships. No sign of _Colonial Heavy 798," _Lisa shouted.

"Launch Vipers. Tell the _Flax_ to start taking out groups of the enemy fighters. Fire flak rounds at anything that comes near the ships..."

"Commander, ten Raiders making a run on the Botanical Cruiser _Virgon Delight. _They report their FTL is off line. They're requesting help.

"Sir, the _Trawler's Hope_ just jumped in," Lisa reported.

"Frak! Tell… wait tell Captain… Frak! What's her name?" Jason said.

"Captain Mellows, Captain Jane Mellows," Lisa replied as she started issuing orders to the CAP.

"That's her! Tell her to start docking ships to her. If I remember right she can dock about forty ships to her hull or something like that," Jason said as the ship shuddered as she opened fire.

"She can dock forty ships to her external hard points if they're not too large and about twenty to twenty-five civilian ships inside the dock," Ensign Mark Dorian verified.

"Good. Order the raptors to start picking up survivors from the planets. We can take a few of those Colonial transports on our upper landing decks. Dock a few of the freighters to our external hard points…" Jason was cut off a missile slipped through and hit the bow… "and stop those frakking missiles."

"Sir, _Flax_ is under heavy attack. At least thirty more fighters… Never mind, she just swatted ten of them out of the air with one barrage. Vipers are closing with the rest," reported Lieutenant Boris Billings at the Dradis station.

"Tell the Vipers, I want them to fly in pairs. Cover their wingman and blow those toasters away," Jason snarled as he watched the ships start docking with the _Trawler's Hope._ On a secondary screen, eight of the Colonial transports were landing in the top two bays.

"We have casualties, four Vipers just blew up. Incoming second wave of Raiders… Shit! Two baseships just jumped in. They're launching missiles and raiders," Boris shouted.

"Hard right! Lock onto the nearest baseship, and launch missiles. Heavy batteries open fire. Let's show these toasters what a Battlestar can do!" Jason ordered.

Fourteen large rail guns swung around and targeted the first baseship. Within seconds, they'd had opened fire and explosions started detonating out of the enemy ship as the rounds ripped into one of the pylons. One small freighter blew up when it crossed in front of the enemy fire. The explosion of the ship damaged several Vipers and Raiders that were fighting amongst the ships. The _Sword's_ fire started walking up the hull of the enemy ship to settle on the central part. In a blinding flash, it blew up, taking the second baseship with it when one of the ships arms impaled itself into the center of the ship.

"Two baseships destroyed, Raiders are jumping…"

"Colonel, get the search and rescue out there to look for survivors. Then we jump again, I want to check out Picon, and then the Scorpion ship yards," Jason ordered.

"Yes, Sir," Lisa replied as she looked at the screen showing the burning freighter.

"Dradis contact, thirty-five ships incoming to our location… we have fleet and colonial transponders. I have fourteen viper MK V's, three cargo ships, two frigates, the _Hyperion _and _Star._ Three mining ships, a Tylium carrier, four extended cargo raptors, three repair ships, two super liners and three medical ships, the _Hope, Athena's Hand_ and the _Comfort," _ blurted out Lieutenant Billings.

"Sir, incoming Vipers are bingo fuel and ammo. Requesting a fill up and a re-arm. The _Athena's Hand_ says their FTL is off line, they have damage to their engine rooms," the communications officer reported.

"Granted. Have the FTL capacity ship prepare to jump out for our last location. If they have hard points left Non FTL capacity ships are to dock with the _Trawler's Hope_. Any ship that cannot go or they run out of room, is going to have to be abandoned and their crews and passengers picked up by the remaining ships. _Athena's Hand_ has priority to dock with the _Trawler,"_ Jason ordered as he started planning his next move. "How long until this mess is cleaned up?" Jason asked.

"Twenty minutes, and then we can jump," Lisa replied.

"Incoming raiders, fifty plus. Twelve minutes until interception," Boris shouted.

"Have the Vipers take them on from long range. As soon as the _Trawler_ jumps, they are to get back here and land," Jason replied as he looked at the Dradis board and looked at the incoming wave. His eyes were darting all over the board and he said, "Launch one nuclear weapon at the incoming fighters with forty standard missiles. Program the missile for proximity detonation. Let's see how many we can get in that cluster at one time."

Colonel Hays' fingers flew over her board as she pulled out her key. She inserted the key as Jason walked over and inserted his key as she replied, "Yes, Sir. You're authorizing special weapons launch in three, two, one… launch!"

Boris suddenly shouted out, "Dradis contact to starboard, incoming raider…" the explosion of the fighter plowing into the support arm of the starboard landing pod shook the ship.

"Detonation of the nuke inside the Cylon fighter's formation, twelve destroyed, the rest are jumping," Boris shouted.

"_Comfort_ has been hit by a Cylon fighter, minor damage to their landing bay; it impacted on the armored doors," Ensign Mark Dorian reported, and then pressed his hand to his earpiece, "Go ahead Hammer."

Jason looked over at Ensign Dorian when he mentioned his lead Raptor pilot.

"Sir, Hammer reports incoming ships with hundreds of survivors. Several small FTL shuttles inbound with them. Estimated count is fourteen hundred survivors."

"Have the raptors and shuttles dock with the hospital ships, and then as soon as their empty, they are to jump again back to Caprica. When they're full again, they are to fold to Picon to join up with us," Jason ordered.

"The last civilian ship has docked with the _Trawler,_ they have filled all port and starboard external points, and the internal dock is full. Her bottom hard points are still empty," Lisa reported.

"Very well, prepare for jump to Picon as soon as the shuttles and raptors are empty. Land the fighters," Jason ordered.

On the screen, it showed the dozen transport shuttles docking to the external points of the _Hope_ and _Comfort_ while the Raptors flew into the landing bays of the three liners. Five minutes after they landed, they were launching as the shuttles broke away from the sides of the ships.

"I bet that's the fastest turn around they've ever done," Jason said as he looked at the last shuttle vanish.

"I agree, it helps that Hammer had them organized," Lisa said.

"Prepare to jump to Picon. All fighters are to be prepared to launch the second we appear," Have any remaining raptors heading for the surface to find survivors. Shuttles and heavy lift transports are to look for survivors in orbit," Jason ordered.

"Yes, Sir. Pilots are warming up the shuttles and the HL's as we speak," Major Rivers replied as she hung up her handset at her station.

"Athena, what's the count on your Vipers?" Jason asked.

"Three full squadrons, the Silver Darts are down six pilots. We recovered three survivors," she replied.

"Dradis contact. Six… no seven baseships appearing and they're launching fighters and missiles. I have scores of radiological signatures," Boris shouted.

"Colonel Hays, jump us to Picon," Jason ordered.

The ships vanished as two thousand missiles flew through their location and detonated.

Above the burning planet, the mighty _Sword_ appeared. Missiles and railgun rounds reached out and smashed into the lonebaseship that was raining death down on the colony of Picon as small craft blossomed from the ship's landing bays. Around her, the rest of the fleet appeared. Remains of the space stations, Vipers, civilian ships and Battlestars drifted. One of the ships was shattered just at the junction of the forward pylons for the landing bays. The stern of the giant _Nova_ class Battlestar was there, but the bow was gone.

"Shut down all external lights and contact the _Trawler._ I want them to dock with the stern section of the _Nebula_ and get her the hell out of here," Jason ordered as he watched the stern of the _Nova_ class Battlestar drifting in space.

"Sir, HLs are finding intact Vipers and they are towing them into the landing bays," Lisa said from her station.

"_Trawler_ is moving into position. Medical shuttles are docking with ships and picking up survivors," Ensign Mark Dorian said with two handsets at his ears.

"Good, look for more of them. If you have to pack the bays, do so. Also you can land as many on the other ships as well if you have to. What about the other ships out there? Any survivors?" Jason asked as he looked at the wreckage around his ships.

"We are finding small ships with dead engines and are towing them in. We also have a transponder for a liner. She is offline and drifting," Lisa replied.

"Get a raptor crew over to her and check her out. You have five minutes once you've landed to get her online and ready to receive survivors," Jason said as he tapped the Dradis board and pulled up another section of the battle. It was the remains of the Picon shipyards, and it was spiraling down into the atmosphere. The remains of a _Majestic_ class Battlestar was still attached to the hull, and he saw life pods rocking from the station and ship.

Picking up the handset, he said, "Sword shuttles, there are life pods ejecting from the Picon space docks and the Battlestar _Golden Horn._ Get in there and rescue them."

"Yes, Sir. This is HL one on the way," came the reply through the handset as Jason hung up.

"Dradis contact, extreme range. It's a baseship, and it's heading this way," Boris said.

"Incoming missiles!" Boris shouted as he grabbed the rail.

Two hundred meters off the portside, a destroyed flight pod went up as the nuclear missile hit the wreckage. The explosion sent debris flying in all directions. Several large chunks slammed into the hull of the _Sword_ and one of the shuttles blew up as it was sliced in half as it was towing a crippled raptor in. The front of the shuttle shot away from the wreckage and it started tumbling towards the planet. Screaming was coming over the speakers as it started burning up in the upper atmosphere until another shuttle swooped in and fired a magnetic harpoon into it, and hauled it back up into space. The baseship then vanished as it jumped again.

"Frak!" Jason said as he watched the rescue on the Dradis board.

"Dradis contact, incoming contacts… It's Hammer with another load of survivors. She reports she was jumped over Caprica City, but three heavy lift freighters lifted off from Delphi as well as the academy training ship _Archon's Fury_.

"Between the three freighters, there are seven thousand survivors onboard. Also, two cargo ships have been loaded with as much prepackaged food supplies from the Archon Military Academy. When the attack happened the Academy was open to the families, Colonel Jo Ball had all the cadets, teachers and families hustled down into the bunkers deep under the fortress and into the Academy ships. They stripped the underground storage rooms and there are over six thousand survivors on the _Archon_ and the two food freighters. All five ships have jumped to the rally point," Boris said as he repeated what he was told.

"Thank you Lieutenant. Coronel, let's get our birds landed. I have a bad feeling we have company coming," Jason said as he looked back at the Dradis board.

"_Trawler_ has jumped. Liner _Caprica Seas_ is taking on survivors. Captain Marline Cassidy says the ship is empty. The ships log says she was docked for upgrades to her CNP systems. They haven't been upgraded and she is powering up the engines. Her marines are herding everyone into cabins and seats. The ship is rated to carry two thousand comfortably, four thousand in a tight fit. They have five of the shut down Vipers in the landing bay. HL nine is bringing in two more under tow. Pilots are safe. It seems the Cylons ignored them and concentrated on the Battlestars. The ship has a full load of fuel, water and food for her next trip, just no crew," Lisa reported.

Boris turned and shouted, "Sir! Incoming baseships. Estimated count fourteen contacts, they're launching fighters. Estimated count is one thousand enemy fighters."

"Get everything landed. Spin up the FTL, send the coordinates for the jump to all ships! Prepare to jump in one minute. Last ship to leave will be the _Sword_ and _Flax._ I want everyone else out of here," Jason ordered as the Dradis board changed and showed the massive fleet of enemy ships approaching.

"Ships are jumping as they fill up with raptors, heavy lift transports and shuttles. Three more ships to go, we have twenty fighters still in the air and four raptors. _Caprica Sea's_ just jumped. Sir, enemy fighters are in range," Lisa reported.

"Tell the last two ships to jump. _Sword_ will pick up the remaining fighters. Have the _Flax_ open fire at extreme range," Jason ordered as the _Flax _started firing her flack rounds.

In the distance, dozens of raiders blew up as the canister rounds exploded hurling shrapnel out into space. The chunks of metal ripped into the incoming fighters. Causing damage to more of the raiders, because they were so tightly packed coming in. The remaining ships opened fired and thousands of missiles were launched as the radiological detectors went haywire.

"Incoming nuclear missiles, estimated count four hundred," Boris shouted.

"Turn the Sword, open fire with the starboard anti-missile batteries with flack rounds. All remaining ships in the air are to land on the port landing bay," Jason ordered.

"Last viper landing now," Lisa reported.

"JUMP!" Jason screamed out as he saw the massive barrage of missiles coming in. Some were hitting the wreckage of the destroyed ships, some were being blown up and then….

_**First Edit by Sneakysis**_

_**Final Edit By TeNderLoin**_

Battlestar Galactica™ is a registered trademark and copyright (©) Glen Larson & the SciFi Channel. Thank you to the Battlestar Wiki and The Battlestar Galactica Role Playing Game, Battlestar Prometheus have proven invaluable for the information they contain. All material found in this story is for entertainment purposes. No copyright infringement should be inferred or is intended. Battlestar Sword and all its original characters and story lines presented here are the copyright (©) of their creator (©) 2010.


	3. Chapter 2

**Battlestar Sword**

**Chapter Two**

**Survivors**

**The Cylons were created by Man.**

**They were created to make life easier on the Twelve Colonies.**

**And then the day came when the Cylons decided to kill their masters.**

**After a long and bloody struggle, an armistice was declared.**

**The Cylons left for another world to call their own.**

**A remote space station was built...**

**...where Cylon and Human could meet and maintain diplomatic relations.**

**Every year, the Colonials send an officer.**

**The Cylons send no one.**

**No one has seen or heard from the Cylons in over forty years....**

**Until Now.**

**Two hours after the attack on the colonies:**

**Valcin Recoveries in the Hyperion Nebula**

Chief of security Nick Jackson was at the Dradis system for the space station Valcin. The convoy that had arrived was docked and the ships were being unloaded when the alarms started sounding off, as two large ships appeared on the edge of the system. Before anyone could move, or say anything they exploded, as hundreds of smaller ships were launched.

"Dradis contact. Multiple signals, we have incoming fighters. Launch the alert vipers," Nick shouted as the alarms went ballistic.

"Frigates _Craving _and _Aspiration_ are separating from the station…"

"Incoming missiles. Launch counter missiles, unearth the missile batteries. Fire all antimissile batteries," Nick shouted as his boss came running into the room.

"What the hell is going on?" Victor Wallington asked as he came to a stop.

"Sir, two large ships just jumped in, and started launching missiles and fighters at us. I've launched the fighters, and activated the antimissile batteries in the surrounding asteroids…"

Around the station, five hundred small missile batteries, popped up out of their hidden ports and missiles started belching from their launchers as more that were hidden on the refinery came online and started firing as well. In all, over a thousand missiles were launched in the first barrage as CIWS systems started automatically targeting the incoming missiles and fighters.

"What about the larger ships? Get some identification on them," Victor snapped as he slid into his chair,

"Yes, Sir. We have twenty of the fighters going after the refinery ships. Vipers are in hot pursuit. Ten more are after the missile storage ship _Archon_ and the liner _Picon's Light._ Fighters are intercepting now," Nick replied as he turned on the fighter frequency and Reese Wallington voice came over the wireless.

"What the hell? Why are the Mk VIIs shutting down? All remaining fighters cover our people… By the Gods! They're Cylons. Everyone watch out. Cover each other… Frakking toasters! They just blew up two of our disabled fighter… Got you, you frakking bastard!" Reese's voice came through the speakers.

"Tell Dancer to keep her fighters away from the baseships, I'll deal with them," Victor said as his fingers flew over his console.

"Yes, Sir," Nick replied as he picked up the handset and said, "Dancer, be advised. Keep your fighters away from the baseships. Your father is going to deal with them."

"I'm too busy keeping our people alive in the disabled fighters. We need more help, launch the reserve fighters. Keep all the MK VIIs in the bays," Dancer replied.

On the Dradis screen, forty older MK II fighters burst from their launch bays and streaked towards the hundreds of Cylon fighters that were shooting up the stations, ships and the disabled fighters. One group of fighters was making runs on the two frigates as they fought side by side as they moved in to protect the disabled Vipers.

"Launch the heavy missiles. I'm loading missile tubes three and six with the Vortex missiles," Victor said as he sent the targeting coordinates to the launchers.

"Launching heavy missiles… now. They will be in range in sixty seconds," Nick replied as more of the duty crew came into the room.

Fifty twenty-five foot long missiles belched from the launchers from the station and thirty asteroids that were strategically placed around the station to protect her from attack. Boosting to their maximum speed, they slipped past the fighters and headed for the two huge baseships in the distance. Their onboard programming came on and they started weaving around to throw off the incoming fire that was reaching out to destroy them.

"Missiles are loaded. Launch them," Victor said as a snarl came to his face.

"I'm launching the second wave of missiles. Now!"

On the Dradis screen, fifty more missiles belched from their launchers, as hundreds of fighters were tearing each other apart when the power went out, all over the station.

"What the frak happened?" Victor asked as he looked around the darkened room that was lit by the emergency lights.

"Sir, not sure. The power system just went off line," Alfred Collins said from his station.

"Then get it back online."

"Trying, Sir, but the system isn't rebooting," Nick replied.

"Shit!" Victor snapped in anger as the station shuddered from a direct hit as he went to work and had his board boot up from battery backup. He started working his way through the command codes and found the virus. "We've been hacked!" he snarled as he pushed his chair back and dropped to his knees.

"Shutting down Alpha system, rebooting with Beta," Victor said as he crawled under his command console, pulled an old fashioned lever from the first Cylon war and slid it over to the secondary position.

Around the station, power came online as weapon systems over fifty years old booted up for the first time. Twenty rail guns hidden on the station by Victor's father came online and started firing at the nearest baseship as the first vortex missile exploded on contact with the lead baseship. The missiles explosion started a spinning vortex that started swirling around the enemy ship. Chunks of the hull were ripped off as the vortex grew in size and then the first ship's central stem snapped in two as the second missile hit the second enemy ship.

A fireball erupted from the Tylium tanks as they were ruptured from the gravitational sheer. It took only a spark, but that's all it needed to cause a massive explosion inside the hull, which was quickly snuffed out by the cold of space. The top part of the first baseship was ripped apart in the explosion as its Tylium tanks detonated inside the hull. The explosion hurled the bottom half away from the explosion like a spinning top as the arms of the top half went flying in three directions like spears.

Cylon fighters started jumping out as bottom hull of the first ship that was hit drifted away. The second baseship had been incinerated from the missiles and rail gun rounds that ripped it apart, sending only chunks of half melted debris out from its death sight.

Victor looked at the Dradis board and started issuing orders. "Nick, get the _Storm Drain_ and _Valcin One_ out there recovering our fighters. Send the boarding parties over to that wreck and get me some information on what is going on.

"Michelle, fire up Raptor Nine for a long range jump to the Colonial Relay station, I want a download of all communications for the last week. Alfred, find out how that virus was planted in my systems. There are only six places the main computer can be accessed and two of them are in here, one in my quarters, the rest are in the damage control station and main computer room."

"Right away dad," Michelle Wallington-Vance shouted and was out the door with her helmet in her hands.

"Yes, Sir, I get right on it," Alfred Collins said and ran out the door. As they were closing, Paul Wallington came into the room.

Turning Victor looked at his second son and said, "Paul, I want you to start shutting down your mining operations and get your ships docked. You are to take refinery one and prepare her for FTL drive. Set the charges to blow refinery two after you drained her of all fuel and supplies. I'll do the same for Valcin Primary research station. We are going to move deeper into the nebula…"

"But Dad we won…" Paul Wallington started to say and was interrupted by his father.

"We won a battle. Those toasters will be back just like your grandfather predicted. Now get going. We need to get out of here before they come back and come back in force. I figure we have at most four hours," Victor ordered as he turned back to the Dradis.

"Sir, the assault shuttles are moving in on the disabled baseship's lower half, and should be onboard in a few minutes," Nick said as he listened to the wireless unit against his head.

"Good. Tell them to use armor piercing rounds. My dad said those bastards are armored… and tell them to watch their sixes," Victor said as he continued working on the disabled boards.

"Yes, Sir."

On the board, a large ship… half the size of a Battlestar… approached the disabled bottom half of the Cylon baseship. Dozens of Raptors flew past it to land in the damaged hangar bay to secure a foothold.

"Sir, _General Hall_ is approaching the enemy ship. Our marines are ready to go as soon as they lock onto the enemy ship," Nick said as he hung the handset up and picked up as second one and listened before replying, "I don't care. Get those fighters landed first. All assets are to be onboard the stations in four hours or set to self-destruct after we leave. Now get going."

"What's going on?"

"Seems some of the guest workers want to take the ships and head for home…"

"I don't think home is there anymore. I think something has happened, something bad. I want all our extended Raptors, heavy lift shuttles and transports prepped to FTL for the home worlds. If what I think has happened, they need to rescue as many of our people as we can. Divide them up into groups so we have twelve groups to hit all the planets…"

"No way, the fleet would tear them apart," Nick said as he interrupted his boss.

"Would it? Look what happened here in the middle of the battle and to our fighters. I bet if you look, those Mk VII's were sabotaged with the same software that hit us. Now if they shut down the Battlestars like they did to us, a lot of good men and women have died," Victor replied as he walked to the door, "I'll be down in the raptor lounge talking to the pilots," he said as he walked out the door.

"Yes, Sir," Nick replied and went back to work.

**Nine hours after the attack:**

**Halfway to Valcin Recoveries:**

**Battlestar Sword**

The ship appeared amongst its charges, smoke and flames billowing out its port side where four missiles had slammed into the hull before she'd jumped away from the holocaust of the twelve colonies. Around the ship, the refugees from the planets once known as 'home', waited for word from the massive ship.

Jason shook his head as he climbed to his feet, smoke was billowing up from a few destroyed consoles as he looked across the Dradis board at his XO, "Colonel, get a report on the damages."

"Right away, Sir," as Lisa picked up the handset and started speaking in to it, as repair crews came into the CIC and started repairs.

"Lieutenant Billings, is there anything on Dradis?" Jason asked.

"Dradis is clear except for our ships. Did you want me to send out the coordinates for the next jump?" he asked.

"Hold off on that until we're all ready to jump. Ensign Dorian. Get me a ship count, and type," Jason ordered.

"Right away," Ensign Mark Dorian replied as he turned to his communications boards and started contacting the ships.

"Sir, we have two hull breaches in the stern. Blast doors closed in time, minor damage from the missile hits. The single nuclear warhead that hit us in the bow did minor damage, but a lot of electronics on the portside bow are offline. Minor damage to portside nacelle, two Vipers destroyed when they flipped over," Lisa reported.

"Sir, we rescued eighty ships. Not sure on population count, but the ships break down as the following…"

"Write it up and get it to me. Are we ready to jump?" Jason asked.

"Ready to jump. Are we joining the President and Commander Adama?" Lisa asked.

"Not yet. I'm pretty sure Ragnar Station is under heavy attack by now, so we will proceed to my father's facilities and make repairs to the ships," Jason replied, as he pulled out a small spiral notebook and said, "Enter these numbers into the FTL drive. 5.A.12 and send it to all ships."

"Entering now and sending," Ensign Rick Holloway said as his fingers flew over the console.

"When all ships have acknowledge transmission, have them start jumping. The _Sword_ will follow last," Jason ordered, as the doors to the CIC opened and a blond haired woman entered holding a repair kit and stood there looking around.

"Corporal, the left gunner station needs repairs. Please see to it," Ensign Hank Myers ordered, from where he was working on the secondary communications station.

"Yes, Chief," Susan Hawkins replied as she went over to the station and knelt.

Jason turned away as the woman went to work. Taking the offered clipboard from Ensign Dorian he watched as the counter counted down.

"Ships jumping, _Flax _went first followed by the frigates _Hyperion _and_ Star_. Liners are going now, and there goes the freighters," Boris reported.

"Very well. Let me know when the last ship jumps. Lisa, get with Damage Control and the repair ships. Let's see if we can figure out how to mount more external weapons on the hull of the other warships. I don't like how they are under gunned," Jason said as he laid the clipboard down.

"I will look into it. I do have an idea on those two military freighters that joined us. Tonight, I'll look at the ships schematics and get back to you…"

"Sir, last ships have jumped," Boris said as he reached for the FTL key.

"Jump!" Jason ordered.

The _Sword_ vanished just as three baseships appeared in the system.

**Nine hours after the attack on the colonies:**

**Valcin Recoveries in the Hyperion Nebula**

Nick looked up from all the reports that had been coming in from around the area as his boss walked into the room, "Sir, Raptors are preparing to get underway. All ships are docked. A new CAP is up. All missile asteroid batteries have been brought in and stored in the hangars. _Refinery One_ has jumped and the haulers have emptied refinery two. The stored fuel has been transferred to _William's Folly_ and _Miller's Folly_ and they have full fuel loads. All ships have topped off, as well as the station. We even filled up the twenty fuel lifters used to transport the fuel from the refinery to the station. There is less than twenty percent in the tanks. They should make a nice explosion when those bastards dock with her.

"The baseship lower hull has been towed to the dock, and locked in place on gantry four, our investigators are going through her for Intel. George Tiller reports the dock wings will be closed up in a few minutes and asked for time to check the dock clamps. Once that's completed, we can jump in twenty minutes," Nick replied as he lowered the clipboard of reports.

"Good, then…"

The alarms started sounding as the two men were talking and they ran for the CIC. Entering the room, the evening crew was calling out the numbers as the ships started appearing on the Dradis screen.

"Twenty-three… no thirty, no forty… Shit they keep appearing," Nancy Borgia shouted as the station systems tried to identify them.

"Who are they?" Victor asked as Nick and he came to a stop at the Dradis board.

"Sir, I am getting colonial signatures… and fleet signatures. It's the Battlestar _Sword_ and I'm not sure on the other ships. Just a second," the communications officer said as she picked up the phone and screamed in it, "SHUT THE FRAK UP! I CAN'T ANSWER ALL OF YOU AT ONCE!"

Once the conversations stop, she said, "Go ahead, _Sword."_

Victor and Nick watched as Nancy listened and then the blood drained from her face as she went flush. It was followed by a stream of tears, as she turned to look her boss fully in the face.

She set the phone down and wiped her eyes before speaking in a choked voice, "Sir, the fleet... it's gone. The colonies are gone. Everyone is dead," she said as she started shaking.

"By the Lords of Kobol! What has happened? What is going to happen to the human race now… Get me the _Sword,"_ Victor ordered as he tried to get his mind around everything that he had been told, but his mind was trying to refuse what he was hearing.

**Sword CIC:**

"Sir, your father wants to speak with you," Ensign Mark Dorian said as he offered the handset unit to him.

Jason picked up the handset and said, "Hello, Dad, sorry to drop in like this, but we have a major situation. First of all, by order of the president, all former military personal are ordered back to duty. Also, I can see you have been attacked and are preparing to jump. Send us the coordinates and we'll join you there."

"Sending them now. It's good to know you're ok. I was preparing to dispatch all my extended Raptors, heavy lift shuttles and transports back to the colonies to pick up as many survivors as possible. The missile storage ship _Archon_ left three hours ago to try and get into Ragnar Anchorage Station or Roanoke Station to fill up on any missiles and ordinance that she can snag for us…"

"Shit, Ragnar Station is probably gone, not sure on Roanoke. Are they sending Raptors in first?" Jason asked as he picked up a clipboard and read the report.

"Yes, four armed Raptors are going in first. If it's clear, they'll jump back, tell the _Archon_ and jump again," Victor replied.

"Ok, good. Now I am dispatching all our Raptors, heavy lift shuttles and small transports with yours. They will go in, SAR, and jump out. Dad, somehow they took over the CNP system and shut down the fleet's Vipers and Battlestars. We lost a lot of good men and women today. Right now, I am going to send some ships to your station. A lot of them need repairs, and I hope you have room for them. I'm sending you our wounded also, as well as all the civilians onboard the _Sword_. Including Mellissa and the kids," Jason said as he started writing up his thoughts on his pad.

"I figured as much. You know, your grandpa always said that the toasters would be back… I guess he was right."

"Yes, he was. With what has happened, I just wish he had been wrong," Jason replied.

"So do I. Jason, send me your ships and wounded. We will take them in, fix them up and see you at the meeting, don't be late. And thank the Lords of Kobol Mellissa and the kids are ok," Victor said as he shut the wireless off on his end.

"Colonel Hays, send the orders to all the Raptors, heavy lift shuttles and small transports in our fleet to be prepared to jump for the home systems. The _Sword_ will go with them as well as any of the empty ships to form another rescue fleet. As soon as a ship is filled, it jumps back to the rest of the fleet. We must try and save as many of our people as possible. All the rescue craft are to concentrate on the young and military personal as well as specialists that we can use. Then the rest can go, I know it sounds cold, but we need the young to survive. So please contact all ships in the system and find out how many civilian casualties they can take. Also, send a message to the _Comfort_ and the _Hope_ to unload their wounded to the station medical system as well as any civilians. They will then join us," Jason ordered.

He then turned to Major Athena Rivers the CAG officer and said, "Major Rivers. Get those colonial transports off the top decks and docked with Valcin Station. I want the landing bays back in full operational status by the time we jump. Also, send a message to the _Trawler's Hope_ to unload all the civilian ships in the main dock and her external docking ports. They are to dock with the station. The _Trawler_ and a Raptor are going on a special mission for me. I will have my father send over two squadrons of Vipers for their protection."

"Yes, Sir," came the reply from the two officers as they turned to their stations.

Ten minutes later, the Dradis screen showed the _Trawler_ as it moved closer to the station as its giant clam doors slowly opened. Seconds after they locked open, the smaller ships started flying out and over to the giant space station that dwarfed the largest Battlestars ever built. On a secondary screen, the eight colonial transports that were docked there, powered up and left the bays, one by one. Ninety minutes after the last ship docked with the station, the _Trawler's Hope_ flew over and docked with Refinery Station Two, and filled up its main fuel cells. It then powered up its FTL and vanished into the wilds of space.

After the _Trawler_ left on her mission, it was the _Sword's _turn to jump on hers. She wasn't going alone, because a hundred small craft, a dozen empty rescue ships were to accompany of her on her rescue mission. First the Raptors went, then the shuttles and transports, followed by the _Sword,_ and the empty ships of the new rescue fleet.

_**First Edit by **_

_**Final Edit By TeNderLoin**_

Battlestar Galactica™ is a registered trademark and copyright (©) Glen Larson & the SciFi Channel. Thank you to the Battlestar Wiki and The Battlestar Galactica Role Playing Game, Battlestar Prometheus have proven invaluable for the information they contain. All material found in this story is for entertainment purposes. No copyright infringement should be inferred or is intended. Battlestar Sword and all its original characters and story lines presented here are the copyright (©) of their creator (©) 2010.


	4. Chapter 3

**Battlestar Sword**

**Chapter Three**

**Missions**

**The Cylons were created by Man.**

**They were created to make life easier on the Twelve Colonies.**

**And then the day came when the Cylons decided to kill their masters.**

**After a long and bloody struggle, an armistice was declared.**

**The Cylons left for another world to call their own.**

**A remote space station was built...**

**...where Cylon and Human could meet and maintain diplomatic relations.**

**Every year, the Colonials send an officer.**

**The Cylons send no one.**

**No one has seen or heard from the Cylons in over forty years....**

**Until Now.**

**Eleven hours after the attack on the colonies:**

**Zodia Asteroid Belt:**

**Raptor 2319:**

The Raptor appeared next to a giant asteroid in the Zodia Asteroid belt. Captain Ellen 'Hammer' Ricks, powered down her Raptor and settled onto one of the asteroids near the ship. She then did a low scan of the area and a large blip was detected on the Dradis board at fifteen million miles.

"We have a contact. Sending for an id on her, if it's who we are expecting we shall know ASAP," Ellen said.

"I have a response. It's the _Goliath_ right where the Commander said it would be. Should I set up the FTL for a return to the _Trawler?"_ Ensign Karen 'Baby Doll' Page asked as she looked up from her electronic warfare board.

"Not yet. Commander Wallington said to wait thirty minutes before we call the _Trawler_ in. He has a plan to keep the toasters busy so the _Trawler_ can get in, get her and get out," Ellen replied as she settled back into her chair, she turned her head to look at her ECO, and asked, "Karen, hand me my thermos."

"Here you go, Ma'am. Did you want your bar as well?" she asked as she handed the silver container to her best friend.

"Nah, I'll save that for later. Right now I need some coffee," Ellen replied as she took her thermos and filled her cup.

"How about one of these?" Ellen asked as she held up a paper bag.

"If that's what I think it is. Hand me one!" Karen replied as she sipped her coffee.

The two shared the thermos of hot coffee and a pair of donuts that Karen pulled out of her carryon. They sipped and ate their snack as the timer counted down. With five minutes to go, she handed the cup and napkin back to Karen and sat up. With a quick check on the Dradis she said, "Set her up, Karen."

"Set up and ready to go!"

"Jumping," Ellen said.

If anyone had been looking at that section of the Zodia asteroid Belt, they would have seen a bright flash as the FTL drive came on as Raptor 2319 vanished.

**Eleven hours after the attack on the colonies:**

**Moon of Leonis:**

**Battlestar Sword**

The _Sword_ appeared near the polar orbit of the moon of Leonis. Around her, the small fleet of rescue craft appeared seconds after she did. Jason watched the Dradis screen and frowned. The Leonis Space Dock was still hovering above the capital city of the planet. Parked next to her was a single baseship with dozens of raiders flying cover. Several destroyed Battlestars drifted around the planet, a section of one, it looked like the engines and part of the middeck of a _Valkyrie_ class Battlestar slipped into atmosphere, burning up as she went down.

"Frak! What is she doing?" Jason asked as a dozen small ships dropped towards the planetary surface.

Lisa watched the ships heading for the surface and replied, "Invasion?"

"Has to be. Ok, spin up the missile. Let's hit them before they know were here," Jason ordered.

The single vortex missile launched from the missile bay. Being heavily coated to reflect Dradis scans, it flew through space and hit the baseship right in the center of the ship. The explosion ripped the ship apart as the gravity wave sent parts of the ship flying in millions of directions. The largest section floated downward to the planet.

"Send the Vipers in. Blow those raiders out of the sky. Tell the salvage ships they have thirty minutes at most to get what they can into their bays, or attached to their salvage anchors before I want them out of here. Silver Darts will provide coverage. The rest of the ships are to get going. Bulk freighters are to land at the food distribution centers that Captain Helms of the _Sara's Hope_ pointed out, just hope they're there. I want them emptied of as much supplies as possible. The rest of the small craft are to start hitting the rest of the colonies while we watch over what's going on," Jason ordered.

"If Anthony says those food distribution centers are there, then they're there," Elise Wallington said as she came into the CIC.

"I know, Mom, but I sure hope this is the right thing to do," Jason replied.

"Jason, Admirals and Generals win wars, but it's the great ones who win with logistics. For without logistics, all wars are lost," Elisa said as she straightened her uniform blouse of a Marine Major.

"I know. You drilled that into us for many years," Jason said as he watched the Dradis board.

"I know, and that's why the company has grown like it has, because logistics was my job in the Marines. Are the heavy lift haulers ready to hit the grocery warehouses stores in the smaller towns?"

"Sir the _Valcin One _and_ Two_ are heading into the battle site to pick up what they can from the wrecked Battlestars. _Storm Drain_ is checking out the space dock to see what can be recovered there. _General Hall _is providing security for the _Storm Drain._ Her Marines are going in now," Lieutenant Boris Billings reported.

Jason watched as the three salvage ships and the military transport headed for the dock while the rest of the civilian ships headed for the surface.

"Launch the Golden Darts for security. Execute operation 'Shell Game'," Jason ordered.

Down on the landing bay, twenty Raptors flew out of the great bay and started jumping to their assigned locations in pairs. One of the Raptors took on the call sign of the _Sword,_ another was the Battlestar _Galactica._ They then took turns talking to each other as if they were preparing for an attack on the Cylon ships.

Cylon ships were jumping all over the place looking for the two despised ships while the real ships searched for survivors, picked up supplies and looked for more ships to use.

Captain Agatha Horus worked her way through the Leonis Space Dock towards the ship computer core. Coming to a stop, they had to force another door open and stepped into a room full of more dead. Agatha looked at the dead people around the command room. She was about to dismiss the dead but stopped when she noticed the blood.

"Frak me! They've been murdered," she said.

"Of course boss, everyone was murdered when they shut the air system down," Corporal Isaiah Mallon said as he stepped into the room with his rifle ready.

"Not what I meant Isaiah, look at the bodies. They've been shot," she replied as she stepped further into the room.

"Captain Horus, this is Sergeant Grayson, we found survivors on a dozen ships. If we can get the station to release the clamps, we'll have more ships for the fleet including two destroyers that were docked in an internal hangar for modifications. We just need crews for them," came a voice over the radio.

""Ok, ask the Raptors to fly back and get some basic crews. Start transferring as much supplies as you can from the station…" she stopped talking as she heard something.

"What was that?" she asked.

"Don't know, Ma'am, but it came from the hallway," Isaiah said as he started covering the doorway across the room. His rifle was up when a man walked down the hall drying his hair. He was wearing a jump suit with the sleeves wrapped around his waist.

"Freeze asshole!" Isaiah yelled out as the rifle settled onto the man's chest.

"Thank the Lords of Kobol! I thought everyone was dead," Aaron Daniels said as he came to a stop.

"What the frak happened here?" Captain Horus asked as she watched the man.

"I don't know. I came in through the side door. They we're all dead. I think the commander killed them all," Aaron replied as sat down on the edge of a computer terminal.

"So you're all alone?"

"Yes, I came in on the _Trails of Hope_ from Picon just before the attack. The ship was hit by a missile, which blew it apart. Emergency airlock doors shut, preventing me from being thrown into space. Now what is going on? Who is your commander?" Aaron asked as more marines arrived.

"Anthony Fallen?" one of the marines said as she came to a stop.

"What?" Agatha asked as she looked at the female marine private.

"How did Anthony get here? He was left on the _Virgon Delight_," the marine replied as she looked at her commander and then added, "Ma'am I left him on the ship. He helped me carry some wounded onto the ship…"

Before she could finish, the man she thought was Anthony Fallen was moving. With a quick kick, the nearest marine went flying as he grabbed the marine to his left and snapped his neck.

Agatha turned and her rifle was coming up as the man grabbed two marines and slammed their heads together. A loud thud was heard and the two murdered marines were picked up and hurled towards the doorway as she opened fired. The first round hit the man in the chest and he flew backwards over the computer station. Marines ran around the stations and three flew backwards as the man crawled to his feet firing a pistol clutched in his hand. Ten rifles fired at once and the man hit the wall leaving a blood trail as he slid down to his ass.

"Frak!" Agatha said as she took in the scene and then shouted her orders, "Medics! Get the wounded and dead back to the _General Hall. _Corporal Mallon, get the system rebooted, so we can release the ships and cargo containers."

Marines flooded into the room, and the dead and wounded were taken out. One of the marines kicked the body of Aaron Daniels and Agatha snapped out, "Get his body to the ship too. I want the doc to take a look at him. If what Private Black says, then he was a Cylon. How I don't know, but we need answers."

"Yes, Ma'am," the marines replied and dragged the body out of the room and down to the station. As they were carrying him, he started jerking and they realized he was still alive. Quickly binding his arms with belts, they carried him to the ship and let the medical staff go to work on him.

Corporal Isaiah Mallon knelt and started pulling panels off the computers consoles and wiped the command codes. He then started rebooting the systems with a back up in the system. One by one, the station came to life around them.

"There you go Ma'am. You have full system access," Isaiah replied as he put the hand computer away and started looking at the stations inventory.

"Holy frak!" he said and looked at his boss.

"What is it Isaiah?" Agatha asked.

"We hit the mother lode, get the ships over here and have them send some crews over. We have twenty-six bulk freighters, three repair ships, four tankers, two destroyers, a _Gorgon _class water ship, which can be refilled from the stations tanks, six large fleet Tylium tankers, eight liners, four electronics ships, a replication ship, three freezer cargo ships, three botanical cruisers, fourteen heavy lifters, forty Raptors, thirty air to air refueler tankers, six hundred and five Vipers. Not including all the supplies. I am starting up the automatic loading system and shipping everything I can to the ships," Isaiah replied.

"Good, as soon as crews get here, we will send them out. Have the Vipers loaded into the freighters. Spread the Raptors among all the ships. Same with the tankers and heavy lifters… oh hell you know what you're doing, so do it," Agatha ordered as she went back to watching the Dradis system.

"Sir, I have a message from the _Sword._ They are dispatching crews for the ships. All are volunteers, but know what they're doing. Sword Actual says hurry up. Our operation 'Shell Game' won't last for much longer. Raptors are ferrying the crews over to the ships now. As soon as they get the systems up and running, survivors will be brought up from the surface. They have found many survivors in the small towns," communications officer Lieutenant Bryon Mason said as he listened to wireless.

"Good, make sure a complete inventory is downloaded to all the ships and send a copy to the _Sword._ We will need to know where everything is and fill each of the ships water and fuel systems so they leave with full loads," Agatha ordered.

"Yes, Ma'am," Isaiah replied.

The minutes flew by as they waited for a contact to appear on the Dradis, or the sudden emergence of a baseship. An hour slowly went by and there was still no sign of the enemy. The crew started to relax but not too much. On the Dradis board, one of the cargo ships from the fleet has been picking up many satellite defense stations and storing them in her massive hull. She also picked up several communications satellites to be used later as well.

"How is the stripping of the three commissaries going?" Agatha asked as she paced from the lack of response from the enemy.

"Eighty percent of the bulk cargo pads removed, only thirteen percent of the shelf items. All three liquor stores have been emptied and the booze has been stashed in one of the heavy lifters. It's being ferried over to the _Sword_ as we speak…"

"Make sure she's under guard. Right now we don't need booze flowing freely through the ship," Agatha ordered as the Dradis system lit up. Forty Raptors suddenly appeared over the planet and started heading for the ships.

"Yes, Ma'am. Also loading of the ships is ahead of schedule. This station has been heavily computerized. Which makes it's easier to load the supplies. The hard part is all those Vipers we have to move..."

"Sir, four freighters, the water ship _Goliath,_ six of the fleet Tylium tankers, three of the eight liners, four electronic ships, the replication ship, and all three of the botanical cruisers are finishing loading now. Captain Brace has raided the books stores, and station library. Four hundred marines have made a chain and all the books are being sent to the _Hall_ for storage. Also the armories are empty, every bullet and missile has been taken to the _Hall_ and two of the cargo ships. Thirty of the thirty-six cargo containers have been unlatched and connected to the cargo ships. What's in them? We have no idea. But Commander Wallington says he wants them. Even if we can't use it now, we can use… Ma'am some of the ships are breaking seal and rendezvousing with the _Sword_…"

"What? How? We don't have enough crew," Agatha stated.

"Ma'am, Major Cassidy sent some crew and guards from the _General Hall _to man the ships. The _Hall _is basically manned by a skeleton crew right now, but she did have over five hundred crewmen. The rest of the ships are powering up. As soon as they're full, they are heading out. It also looks like we will need to leave forty Vipers. We're out of room…"

"Negative, start using the Raptors to ferry them to the _Sword_ for storage, remember her top landing bays are empty, so she can take more. Bryon, how many survivors have been brought up?" Agatha asked as she changed the conversation.

"Just under seven thousand, and they've been sent to the botanical cruisers since they have more room," Lieutenant Mason reported.

"Good, now if we just have a little more time," she said as she sat down in her chair and rubbed her tired eyes.

"The first ten Vipers are heading out now under tow, estimate ten minutes for turn around. More Raptors are inbound to… Dradis contact! Twenty incoming Raiders just jumped in as well as ten midsized ships. _Sword_ is under heavy attack.

**Battlestar Sword**

The _Sword_ shuddered as two more missiles hit her, her guns firing as if the demons of hell were after them, and they were. "Lock 'em up!" Jason hollered at the weapons officer.

"I am, Sir. Loading flak rounds now, and firing," the gun captain replied.

The heavy railguns fired into the Cylon assault craft heading for the planet's surface. The incoming railgun rounds started shredding the medium sized transports as they turned to flee. The _Sword_ and _Flax_ followed ripping them apart one by one while the Raiders tried to protect them. Flak rounds burst around the ship, taking out as many of the incoming Cylon Raiders as they could. Missiles dropped from the Raiders, swept in, and slammed into the armored hull of the massive warship. One missile hit just behind the bridge section and exploded. The explosion ripped through the CIC. Jason had ducked down as the explosion shattered the glass doors just in time, but several crewmen were killed when the debris ripped through the room.

Picking up the handset, he said into it, "Medics and repair teams to the CIC," and hung up. Looking around, most of the crew were back in their chairs as he shouted, "Damage report!"

"Sir we have damage on deck four, portside, section 172 and 174 between frames eighty and eighty three. The section is open to space, not sure on casualty count. Railgun four out of action as well as missile bays three through nine. Damage to emergency CIC two and sublight engine one," Ensign Hank Myers reported.

"Thank you Ensign, dispatch repair teams to those areas; seal off the breach on deck four…" James flew from his feet as the ship lurched. When he climbed back to them, the lights were dimmer as he asked, "What the hell was that?"

"Sir, a Cylon fighter hit the starboard side just forward of the flight pod. Auxiliary control three is gone as well as emergency FTL drive room one," Hank replied.

Before Jason could respond the alarms stopped flashing in the CIC and he looked at the Dradis board as the last Cylon fighter blew up just short of the ship.

"Sir, the last enemy fighter has been destroyed. What are your orders?" Lieutenant Boris Billings asked as he scanned the surrounding area.

"Land the empty Vipers, launch the reserve cap. Condition on all ships?" Jason asked.

"Getting it now, Sir," Ensign Mark Dorian replied.

"Thank you, Ensign. Colonel Hays, check on the damages to EFD one and Auxiliary control room one," Jason said as he turned back to the Dradis board and added, "As soon as the ships are loaded. I don't want them to wait; they are to FTL to point Athena. We will join them after the last ship leaves. Any word on the rescue ships? And the food ships?"

"Ships are jumping now. No word on the rescue ships. _Flax_ is recovering our downed Vipers… Sir the flattops are jumping now. They have secured as much of the destroyed ships as possible. Ships lifting off from the planet now and jumping as soon as they're airborne," Ensign Dorian reported.

"Good, time till the last ships leave?" Jason asked as he started pacing.

"Ten minutes, fifteen top."

"Sir, fires are out on deck four. Raptors are towing Vipers into port and starboard landing bays, ten more to retrieve and we'll have stripped the station completely," Colonel Hays reported.

"Good," Jason replied as he waited for the next shoe to drop… he knew it would soon.

**Resurrection ship,**

**56AU's from Caprica**

He sat up out of the liquid with a gasp of breath. As he placed his head on his knees, he heard a voice.

"Welcome home, brother," said the voice.

Aaron Daniels turned his head and looked at his clone and replied, "The humans are at Leonis. You may want to send some baseships there, and deal with them. They also know of our group."

"Thank you, brother, I'll let Cavil know. Now come, let's get you cleaned up and into new clothes," he said as he helped his brother out of the tub and asked, "Do you know who they are? What ship they belong to?"

"No, and I think they have gotten the station's power back. I remember the lights coming on as they carried me into their ship. I know it was a marine assault ship. Other than that, I have no idea on their resources."

"Damn, and how did they find you?" the five asked.

"One of the marines called me Anthony and wanted to know how I got on the station. There was no way to bluff, so I attacked. I think I killed about six of them before they got me," Aaron said with a grin.

"Good trade odds, even better is when we can come back to try again and they cannot. Now here is your room, I'll let Cavil know we have found some survivors… by the way. The name is Aaron Doral," he said as he shook his brother's hand.

"You were on the Galactica. So I assume she is gone?" Aaron Daniels asked.

"No. I was unmasked and left to die by the humans at Ragnar Anchorage Station. But I have returned and now I must get back to Caprica. We have a mission going on there," Doral said and walked away.

**Thirteen hours after the attack on the colonies:**

**Moon of Leonis:**

**Battlestar Sword**

The _Sword_ shuddered as the normal missile hit the hull as her missiles streaked for the Cylon base ships. With the _Flax_ parked above the ship, very little was getting through as the fleet FTL'd out of the danger zone.

"Concentrate all fire on the closest baseship. Blow it apart," Jason ordered.

On the Dradis screen, five baseships were closing with the colonial warships. Already two had been destroyed by the _Sword._ The rest of the ships were concentrating on the waves of incoming raiders as the fleet of civilian ships jumped to safety. Only two Pac Liners were left, and they were recovering the shuttles from the surface as the fleet fought, behind them, the Leonis Space dock was breaking apart from the nuclear warheads that had hit it.

"Sir, the _Astoria_ has jumped and there goes the _Pacifica_ now," Boris shouted.

"Good, send the recall to all Vipers. Set up for a hot landing. We jump in five. Concentrate all flak behind the fleeing Raiders and hit that baseship," Jason ordered.

"Yes, Sir!" came from the crew as they double-timed their work effort to protect the remaining human population.

"All Vipers, this is the CAG. I want you to land on the nearest ship. I repeat, land on the nearest ship. We jump in five, hurry it up you maggots!" Major Athena Rivers snarled into the handset as she turned to the Dradis screen.

On the screen, one hundred Vipers broke out of the dogfights they were in and headed back to the ships on full afterburners. Behind them, the flak barrage intensified as every ship adjusted their aim and covered the fleeing ship. Four Raptors vanished into FTL, as they recovered the last of the downed Vipers. Dozens of raiders were swatted out of the sky by the intense barrage as they tried to get closer to the huge Battlestar as she engaged the incoming baseships.

Vipers started landing in droves on the four landing bays of the _Sword _and the other ships. Even the _General Hall_ took ten Vipers before jumping out.

"Thirty… twenty-six… twenty… fifteen Vipers left," Athena shouted over the firing of the main guns.

"Keep hitting that bitch!" Jason ordered as the railguns pounded the baseship. Suddenly the radiological alarm sounded and Boris screamed out.

"Incoming nuclear missiles, impact time sixty seconds," Boris shouted.

"How many more Vipers are out?" Jason asked as the ship shuddered on the first hit.

Nine Vipers left," Athena said as she watched the monitors and six more Vipers slipped in. Three more were right behind them limping along as one suddenly shot up to the top deck, hit the roof of the hangar and went tumbling down the flight deck into the safety net. The remaining two Vipers landed on the bottom deck and slid to a halt.

"All Vipers aboard!" Athena shouted.

"Jump the ship!" Jason ordered.

Two missiles hit, both non nuclear as the ship vanished into faster than light speed. Behind it, the five base ships converged on the planet and started raining death down on the planet that they had lightly touched. Every city and town on the planet took a ten megaton hit, obliterating it from existence. As the baseships attacked the planet, they were surprised when ten Raptors appeared and launched four nuclear missiles at each baseship. The missiles hit the center of the ships, blowing them apart before the enemy Raiders could respond.

By the time they turned to attack, the Raptors were gone, their mission completed.

_**First Edited by **_

_**Final Edit By TeNderLoin**_

Battlestar Galactica™ is a registered trademark and copyright (©) Glen Larson & the SciFi Channel. Thank you to the Battlestar Wiki and The Battlestar Galactica Role Playing Game, Battlestar Prometheus have proven invaluable for the information they contain. All material found in this story is for entertainment purposes. No copyright infringement should be inferred or is intended. Battlestar Sword and all its original characters and story lines presented here are the copyright (©) of their creator (©) 2010.


	5. Chapter 4

**Battlestar Sword**

**Chapter Four**

**Cylons**

(The Twelve Colonies of Kobol mistakenly believed they were the first to create them.

The first Cylons were sentient bipedal robots used primarily for dangerous work such as mining.

Created long before the Articles of Colonization united the twelve sovereign governments,

the Cylons were also used as soldiers to fight inter-colony wars.)

**The Cylons were created by Man.**

**They were created to make life easier on the Twelve Colonies.**

**And then the day came when the Cylons decided to kill their masters.**

**After a long and bloody struggle, an armistice was declared.**

**The Cylons left for another world to call their own.**

**A remote space station was built...**

**...where Cylon and Human could meet and maintain diplomatic relations.**

**Every year, the Colonials send an officer.**

**The Cylons send no one.**

**No one has seen or heard from the Cylons in over forty years....**

**Until Now.**

**Baseship Alfa:**

**Heading after the Galactica:**

**Alfa CIC:**

Cavil was fuming as he looked at his minions. He paced back and forth. Several of his brothers watched as he glared at each of them.

"Tell me how so many Battlestars survived our attacks?" Cavil said as he came to a stop in front of three number sixes.

"We thought we had them all located. We should…"

"Should doesn't matter. We have the _Galactica_ running away, and trying to find the thirteenth tribe. We have the Battlestar _Pegasus_ out there with an insane human at the helm. Plus the _Hermes* _with that human Artimus Bowman, is becoming a real thorn in our side, and now the _Victorious**_ under Admiral Scott Tolan and their battle group have joined in... And now we now have another Battlestar named _Sword,_ and several hundred ships running away as well and… AND NOW YOU COME TO ME ABOUT ANOTHER ONE! But this one is unknown, and this Battlestar just fraken took out the CAPRICAIN REFINERY. BY THE GODS! CAN'T ANY OF YOU DO YOUR FRAKKING JOBS?"

"Don't use Gods name in vane!" one of the sixes said as she wiped the spit from her face.

"DON'T TELL ME WHAT TO SAY! HOW MANY MORE ARE OUT THERE? YOU SAID WE GOT THEM ALL!"

"We thought we did. We had their locations. Why they survived, we don't know," the number eight said.

"Brother, we can hear you. You don't need to scream," another number one said.

Cavil turned on his brother, his hand came out and the slap could have been heard on Caprica as the number one went flying. "DON'T TELL ME WHAT TO DO!"

"Calm down, brother. We will destroy them," another number one said as he reached out and placed his hand on his brother's shoulder.

"Yes, must be calm… must think," Cavil said as he turned to the rest of the group again.

"_Two, four, eight, they're multiplying. Tylium is power, power is fleeting." End of line_, came from the hybrid.

Cavil felt the words dig into his neurons as he turned and looked at the hybrid as she contained.

"_The blade, twins out of the night. A ghost from the past shall come. All shall unite to destroy. Seek out the heart for the answers. End of line."_

"Blabbing idiots, I don't know why we keep them," Cavil said as he turned back to the Cylons in the room.

"Here's what were going to do. I want the baseships organized into fleets of five ships each. The Alfa and her escorts will continue after the _Galactica._ Send one fleet after the _Pegasus._ Three fleets after the _Victorious_ and one after the _Hermes._ Dispatch two fleets to find the unknown Battlestar that blew up the refinery. Three fleets are to head after the _Sword_ and her survivors. The rest are to scour the systems around the twelve colonies and wipe out every colonial and civilian ship, base and town they encounter as well as the outlying colonies we haven't hit yet. Order our ground forces to continue to wipe out all the humans on the colonies except for the breedable women and young girls. Leoben wants to use them in his experiments, so gather them up. They are to be transported to our new base on Caprica…"

"_The one shall come, who shall reveal all. She shall set them free from hell, and eventually lead the fleeing ones to… Gas, clouds, eyes, all are clues. End of line."_

"Will you shut up!" Cavil said to the hybrid as he looked at his minions, and asked, "well?"

"We'll get on it. But you need to rest," the number eight said.

"I will, but right now, we need to get going. Get to your baseships and start doing your frakking jobs," Cavil snapped and watched as the others scattered to the landing bays of the great ship.

Turning back to the Dradis board, he mumbled, "This will not turn out like the first war. We shall prevail and our enemies shall be crushed beneath our feet."

"_War… a fickle game. One hand can trump the other. A joker in the deck shall destroy all or lead them astray or to a new home. Ten by the third power… trinity… life, love, hate. It all equals the same. Preparing to jump. Jump!"_

"Dradis contact. It's the _Galactica."_

"Attack!" Cavil said.

*** Battlestar Hermes is written by The Wilky Bar Kid and posted at ****.net/u/2046734/The_Wilky_Bar_Kid**

**** Battlestar Victorious is written by Wes Imlay and posted at ****.net/u/1020863/Wes_Imlay**

**Both of the stories are excellent reads, and my thanks go out to the authors for allowing me to add them.**

_**First Edited by Bill Lewis**_

_**Final Edit By TeNderLoin**_

Battlestar Galactica™ is a registered trademark and copyright (©) Glen Larson & the SciFi Channel. Thank you to the Battlestar Wiki and The Battlestar Galactica Role Playing Game, Battlestar Prometheus have proven invaluable for the information they contain. All material found in this story is for entertainment purposes. No copyright infringement should be inferred or is intended. Battlestar Sword and all its original characters and story lines presented here are the copyright (©) of their creator (©) 2010.


	6. Chapter 5

**Battlestar Sword**

**Chapter Five**

**Flight for Survival**

**The Cylons were created by Man.**

**They were created to make life easier on the Twelve Colonies.**

**And then the day came when the Cylons decided to kill their masters.**

**After a long and bloody struggle, an armistice was declared.**

**The Cylons left for another world to call their own.**

**A remote space station was built...**

**...where Cylon and Human could meet and maintain diplomatic relations.**

**Every year, the Colonials send an officer.**

**The Cylons send no one.**

**No one has seen or heard from the Cylons in over forty years....**

**Until Now.**

**Three days after the attack on the colonies:**

**Zodia Asteroid belt:**

**Battlestar Sword**

The _Sword_ appeared amongst the fleet. Her flanks burning from the missiles hits she had received from the Cylon base ships in the last attack. For the last three days the fleet was being pushed further and further from the colonies. Ahead of her, the fleet formed up again, the giant warship was protecting the hundred and eighty from attack as they tried to find away to escape. They were now in the Memnon system, located just on the redline, ninety light years from home.

"Dradis check. Launch the CAP. Get me a fleet report! Colonel Hays, dispatch a pair of Raptors to check the colony and see if it's been attacked," Jason snapped out his orders.

"Dradis is clear," Lieutenant Boris Billings replied.

"Raptors are dispatched. ETA nine minutes," Lisa replied as she hung up her handset.

"Thank you. Start the counter for 139 minutes," Jason ordered.

"Counter started," Boris replied.

"Sir the freighter _Slug_ reports their FTL is acting up. Their requesting permission to dock with the repair dock for repairs," Ensign Mark Dorian reported.

"Permission granted," Jason replied as he walked to the shattered doors and said, "Colonel Hays, you have the bridge. I'll be in my quarters. Please set up the next jump. I want to jump in ninety minutes. Let's not wait for the Cylons to show up."

"Yes, Sir," Lisa replied as she picked up the handset again.

Jason stepped through the work crew area that was installing a set of blast doors for the CIC, he walk down the hall and into his quarters where his daughter ran at him and wrapped her arms around his waist. Picking up his daughter, he hugged her and went to his couch. He sat down with a sigh. He was dead tired, and he knew the crew was tired, and if they didn't get some sleep soon, they would make a mistake. Sitting there holding his daughter against his chest, he drifted off to sleep.

**Battlestar Sword CIC**

Lisa yawned and looked at the Dradis board. It had been ten minutes since the Commander had went to his quarters, and she hopped he was sleeping. Turning her head, she looked at the communications officer as his handset sounded off.

"Sword, go ahead Raptor 1282," Ensign Dorian said.

"I'm putting you on speakers," Mark said into the handset and flipped the switch with his left hand as he hung up.

"This is Raptor 1282. The colony has been mostly leveled. The spaceport has been shot to bits, but there may be some items we can use. It looks like the missile that should have hit the city, landed in the ocean and the tsunami from the detonation flooded the city and flattened it. Some buildings are still standing, not sure on survivors," Lieutenant Helen 'Runner' Hastings reported.

"Runner, anything left at the base worth salvaging?" Lisa asked as she looked at the map of the colony.

"Checking now," came the reply and then a shout, "Ma'am, the base is still there. It looks like they shot it up, I see four… no five destroyed transports on the main runway. But that's it… Shit being locked up," Helen shouted and then a set of explosions was heard through the speakers.

"Frakking toasters are firing at me, I see ten, no fifteen of them around a transport at the edge of the base. Vipers going in now," Helen reported.

"Send a message to Colonel Ball to take the_ General Hall_ in and drop her marines. I want that base secured in twenty minutes. We will then take everything we can use.__Use the freighters___Glory and Aspin Woods___for the supplies since they are empty right now," Lisa ordered.

"Ma'am Colonel Ball says it's a can do. Her marines will secure the base, and strip her of everything. She says when she was stationed here, there was a huge supply dump on the other side of the planet. They are not on the maps, but she is dispatching ten of her heavy lifters to the base along with four hundred marines. The bunkers were hermetic sealed and should be still secure. It was an emergency Marine storage facility and should be enough ammo, weapons and equipment to arm a battalion. She requests that the military freighter, _Captain Amanda King_ be used to lift off the supplies there since she is empty," Ensign Dorian reported.

"Get it done. Also, dispatch twenty Raptors to start scouring the countryside for survivors. There were thirty thousand people on this planet, some of them have to have survived and they're down there, somewhere, so find them," Lisa said as she turned back to the Dradis.

_**General Hall**_** CIC:**

Colonel Josephine Ball or Jo to her cadets looked at the Dradis screen on the _General Hall_ as she entered the astrosphere of the planet. Down in the bays, her marines were finishing gearing up for the combat drop they were going to do in thirty seconds.

"Two minutes until were over the base. Launching Raptors to join the _King_ over the other side of the planet now," the communications officer said.

"Good, tell them to watch out for toasters," Jo ordered as she watched the base appear.

Missiles started flying up from hidden launch positions as the _Hall_ came to a stop over the main runway. Explosions detonated from the armor as the old ship shrugged off the enemy fire.

"Take out those launchers," Jo said as she saw the small transport at the end of the runway and added, "Detail three squads to take that ship. I want it intact, can do?"

Major Arlene Crenshaw picked up the handset and started giving her bosses orders to the crew as the ship shook from two more missile hits.

Around the hull of the ship, small gun ports opened, and old Mark Eleven CWIS guns popped out and opened fire. The armor piercing rounds ripped through the many missile positions. The rounds started shredding the Cylons into scrap metal and detonating their remaining missiles as the ship came to a hover over the runway. Forty irises opened on the bottom of the ship, and hundreds of marines started dropping the four feet from the ship. Hidden Cylons opened up from around the runway and marines started dropping from their wounds. Before a second barrage of enemy fire could rip into them, the CWIS system lowered their aim and blasted the hidden murders to shreds as the marines regrouped and charged across the runway.

Jo watched as her marines were shot and she wanted to grab a weapon and join them, but she was to old now to lead in combat. Turning her head, she looked at her aide and said, "Suppress that fire. Send the second wave."

"Yes, Ma'am," Major Crenshaw replied as she picked up the handset again.

Captain Amanda King

The _Captain Amanda King _followed her escorting Raptors over to the marine storage facility. Her captain, Reggie Homes, watched as the marines landed on the base from the twenty smaller craft. As soon as the all clear was given, the ship settled down onto its landing legs and the large ramp descended from the bow of the ship. Three hundred marines and two hundred crewmen rushed out, and began opening the dozen bunkers surrounding the landing site. Weapons, ammo, uniforms, prepackaged meals, and vehicles started pouring from the base as fast as they could lift the prepackaged containers. Ninety minutes after touchdown, the ship climbed back up into space to rejoin the fleet.

**Colony City of Memnon:**

The _Glory _and _Aspin Woods_ landed in the city. The _Glory_ was outside of dozens of warehouses that had been protected from the tsunami by a huge sea wall. The _Aspin Woods_ landed at the air base. Marines and the ship's crew started loading the ships while the Raptors and heavy lifters flew around the countryside, picking up survivors and cattle from the outlying farms. Eighteen hundred survivors were found, mostly farmers and two day-camps from the city that had been celebrating 'Landing Day'.

Three thousand cattle had been airlifted to the botanical cruisers, as well as thousands of fowl, along with as much grain as could be possibly taken. Search teams going through the spaceport located three grain ships, that had survived the attack, along with a liner and twenty Raptors of the Memnon space guard.

As the marines worked their way through the port, they found hundreds of bodies of the dead, and more Cylons. Gun battles erupted. The liner and three grain haulers were loaded with supplies. Three grocery stories were partially emptied, before the countdown hit fifteen minutes, before folding. With the auto loaders for the grain, the grain ships made three trips to Valcin Station to unload and refill with more by the time the counter hit zero.

**Battlestar Sword, CIC**

Jason walked into the command and control center two hours after he left. The nap he had gotten had revived him a little. Looking at the Dradis board and the counter, he said, "Send the jump coordinates to all ships. Send the Raptors first."

"Raptors are already there. They report the area is clear. All ships are spooling up their FTLs as we speak. We can jump…" Lisa stopped and looked at the counter, and added, "in one minute. That gives us a window of five minutes."

"Good, start sending the ships," Jason ordered as his aide came over and handed him a large stack of papers clipped to a clipboard.

"Thank you, Ensign Mathews," he said as he hung the board on its holder.

"Welcome Commander. Also, Admiral Stark is asking to see you in medical. Doctor Connors says she is not going to make it. She says you should come down after the jump," William said as he stepped away from his boss.

On the Dradis screen, ships were disappearing as their FTL engines powered up to full power. Jason was watching the counter for the FTL drive when Boris shouted out.

"Dradis contact, five contacts!"

James looked over at Lieutenant Billings and said, "How far?"

"Five AU's… I have colonial signatures. Its battle group 23 or what's left of them," Ensign Mark Dorian reported.

James picked up his handset and said, "This is Commander Wallington of Battlestar _Sword_ to battle group 23. State your identity."

"Sir this is Captain Vince Walker of the destroyer _Gypsum._ I have the destroyers _Hawk, Swallow_, passenger liner _Glory_, refiner ship _Trill,_ and the botanical cruiser _Hasp._ Thank God we found someone. I'm requesting permission to join with you. We have five thousand survivors in my ships from the holocaust.

"You're more than welcome Captain Walker. We are preparing to finish our jump. I'm sending you our jump coordinates. How soon can you jump?" Jason asked as he pointed at the communications officer.

"Two minutes to spin up the FTL and we will be ready to go," came the reply over the fleet wireless.

"Good, coordinates on the way. Soon as we are at the new location, I want all captains of your group to report onboard," Jason ordered.

"Yes, Sir, we will report on board ASAP. _Gypsum _out," Vince replied as he hung up.

"Colonel Hays, ship types on those destroyers," Jason asked as he hung up his handset.

"The _Gypsum_ is the eighteenth _Kobol_ class destroyer built. The_ Gypsum_ has six rail gun mounts on the top deck, ten missile tubes per side as well as fourteen flack batteries, ten flak batteries on her belly. Her crew consists of six hundred and ten with twenty-four officers as crew, plus forty marines. The book says she carries two shuttles, four Raptors and a refueling tanker.

"The _Hawk _and _Swallow_ are _Bird_ class anti-fighter destroyer escorts. The _Bird's_ are brand new ships, only six being built. They are nothing but anti-fighter craft ships. They have twenty flak batteries on port and starboard sides, thirty on the top and bottoms. She has a crew of three hundred, with twenty-nine officers. They have four Raptors and two shuttles in their landing bays, or should have," Colonel Hays reported.

"Thank you, Lisa. Ensign Holloway how many ships left to jump?" Jason asked.

"Ten… seven… just the warships and the new people, Sir," Rick replied.

"Then as soon as the new people have jumped, we go…"

"DRADIS CONTACT!" Boris shouted and then added, "Four no… six base ships appearing between us and battle group 23. Sir, their launching raiders. _Trill _is under heavy attack!"

On the screen the _Trill_ turned to try and avoid the incoming missiles, but it was futile. Ten missiles hit the heavily laden ship and her refined fuel went up like a nova when one missile punctured her central tank. The explosion ripped the vessel in half, hurling the stern in one direction and the bow at the destroyer _Gypsum_ which was firing into the lead baseship while the _Hawk_ and _Swallow _fired at the incoming fighters. Scores were destroyed as three Raptors flew over to the remains of the _Trill_ to rescue her crew.

"Tell those ships to jump. We'll cover them. Hard to port, launch heavy missiles, railguns target the first baseship," Jason ordered as he watched the incoming fighters.

"Sending now, the _Glory_ and _Hasp_ are jumping now," Ensign Dorian replied.

Before Jason could reply, two raiders plowed into the portside of the _Gypsum,_ causing a massive explosion as they exploded and then the small fleet started jumping. The Raptors broke away from the _Trill_, carrying the wounded and survivors with them. They immediately jumped into FTL as the _Hawk_ fired a broadside into the wreckage of the _Trill,_ blowing it to bits. Missiles continued to rain down on the three ships, but the flak from the two destroyers blew every missile apart and then they were gone.

The raiders, denied their original prey, turned and headed for the fleet of warships thirteen thousand miles away and started launching missiles. Flak rounds started belching from the warships as their FTL drives continued to spin up. The first of the smaller ships started jumping as the _Sword_ turned into the missiles swarm to give the smaller ships time to escape.

Missile after missile slammed into the portside of the huge ship, her armor deflecting some hits as her flack cannons destroyed some of the other missiles. But even then there were too many missiles and raiders to stop. Three raiders slipped into the portside landing bay, one of the defense cannons caught one of the raiders as it entered, blowing it to bits, but the remaining two slipped passed and crashed into the barrier.

"Intruder alert, Beta Bay Portside. Two Cylon raiders have landed. All marines to the portside defense stations," Jason said as he watched his crew run from the advancing Cylons. He watched in anguish as his deck crew was being cut down in front of his eyes.

The twelve Cylons reached the main hangar and started spraying rounds around the humongous cavern filled with Vipers, Raptors and heavy lift craft. Two ground crew riding tow carts slammed into the midst of the mechanical creatures, crushing several of them as they ran over the toasters, but the rest ripped the heroic crewmen apart from several directions. One Cylon changed his gun to a sword and cornered four of crew in an office off the deck. Screams could be heard as the marines ran in and started firing into the remaining Cylons.

One by one they went down under the combined firepower of the ships assault teams until only four were left. The one in the office was pinned down, but the others was firing into the Vipers, and three of them had exploded and flames were licking at six more and a missile storage rack filled with air to air missiles.

"Vent the bay!" Jason ordered.

Colonel Hays head snapped up as she gasped out, "Sir we have people in there!"

"I know, you have sixty seconds to get them out before I vent," Jason replied as the ship shuddered again from another direct hit.

On the Dradis screen, a base ship blew up when all remaining portside rail guns fired. The rounds hit the center stem and it blew apart when the armor piercing slugs ripped through the Tylium tanks.

"One baseship destroyed, the remaining ships closing," Boris shouted over the sound of the missiles detonating on the armored hull.

"All our personal are out of the bay," Lisa reported.

"Last ship has jumped," Boris said.

"Jump and when we come out, vent the bay," Jason ordered.

"Incoming new wave of missiles, I have radiological warnings," Boris shouted as the ship jumped.

**Battlestar Sword, CIC:**

The ship appeared among her charges. Doing a quick scan, they were in a system that hadn't been visited by colonial forces in forty years.

"Blowing the bay," Lisa reported.

On a secondary screen it showed the massive doors that protected the ship opening. The outrushing of air picked up the debris of the battle including the wreckage of the burned out Vipers, undamaged Vipers, the Cylons centurions and their ships. Also went the bodies of the dead, crates, papers and tools as the fire was snuffed out.

"Launch the alert Vipers, and dispatch the salvage ships and pick up everything. I don't want to leave anything behind if we can help it. Ensign Holloway, set up the next jump, I want to be out of here in forty minutes if possible. Contact battle group 23. Tell them the meeting will be after the next jump. But for now, I want those anti-fighter destroyers on the flanks of the convoy, and get me a damage report on the _Gypsum,"_ Jason ordered and then turned to his second and command, "Colonel, get me a damage report on the ship."

"Yes, Sir," Lisa replied and turned to her station.

"Dradis report, fourteen contacts," Boris reported.

"What are they?" Jason asked.

"Sir, not sure. Whatever they are, they have wreckage floating around them," Boris replied as he tried to fine-tune his scanners.

"Dispatch four Vipers to check it out," Jason ordered.

"Yes, Sir," Ensign Mark Dorian replied.

"Colonel you have the bridge. I'll be in my day cabin…" the shrill of the handset stopped him and he picked it up, "Bridge here."

"Commander, can you please come to medical?" Doctor Elizabeth Connors asked.

"Beth, I'll be right down," he replied and hung up the handset.

"Colonel, disregard my last. I'll be in medical first, then my cabin. Please have these reports sent there and put on my desk," Jason asked as he walked to the door and stepped through the hatch.

Jason walked through the hallways; he passed repair crews working on the damaged sections. Five minutes and three detours due to damage to the ship, he stepped into medical where he found a mad house. The doctors were working like crazy on the wounded, trying to get them settled in chairs so they could be examined. Looking around he saw Doctor Connors working on a pilot. She was unwrapping bandages around the man's bleeding arm.

Walking over, he saw it was one of his top pilots who went by the name Cracker. He was lying on the bed watching the doctor work, and if he didn't know better, he swore he was flirting with Beth.

"Hey Cracker, how bad is it?"

"Sorry, Sir, I missed one," Lieutenant Lance 'Cracker' Boxer.

"You made it back, that's all that matters. Heal up, we need you son," Jason said to the twenty year old pilot as he patted his good shoulder.

"Thank you, Sir," Lance replied as the nurse injected him with a pain medication as Beth started sewing up the cut that went from his elbow to his wrist.

"Jason, Admiral Stark wants to see you. She's in room three," Beth said as she sewed.

Jason nodded his head, and turned away when he felt an arm on his shoulder. Turning back to the doctor he started to ask her what else she needed but she beat him to it.

"Jason, she doesn't have much time left. I tried, but all I could do, was make her comfortable and ease her pain," she said.

"Thank you, Beth," Jason replied and walked out of the medical ward and down the hall to room three.

With a knock, he waited and entered when the door was opened for him. Stepping into the room, he looked at his former teacher and wanted to wince at the burns that covered half her body. Her former blond hair was just a stubble on her head, and bandages covered her left side of her face, down to her arm and he knew under the sheets her chest and legs. How she had lived four days since the attack and finding her in the wreckage of Leonis City, he didn't know. Sitting to her left were her two aides, the twin women were her nieces. Ensign Sara Stark was setting a book down that she was reading to her aunt, and Ensign Lori Stark had opened the door for him.

"You asked to see me Admiral?" Jason asked.

"Yes, I did Commander… Jason. Please have a seat. Would you like something to drink?" she asked with a cough.

"Thank you but no on the drink," he said as he sat down.

"What's the count?" she asked.

Knowing what she meant, he replied, "Just under two hundred ships of all classes, and last count was just under two hundred thousand people."

"That's all? Only two hundred thousand out of twenty billion, by the Lords of Kobol. What are we going to do? What of the fleet?"

"We know the _Galactica_ is out there under Adama, and she has gathered a civilian fleet. We don't know where they're at, at this time. How many is in his fleet, we don't know. We do know secretary of Education Laura Roslin is the new president…"

"Screw her. She frakked up, the whole frakken government frakked up. Right now the fleet is under Martial Law. I declared that when you brought me aboard. Now I want you to take this fleet and run. Find a planet far away from the colonies and set up a new government. The day of the destruction wiped out the twelve colonies, they are no more. We are now one race, a race running for our lives. A race that must be united if we're going to succeed as a race and rebuild to a better life then we had. One thing we must never do is let down our guard. When I'm gone, it will be up to you to get this fleet to safety…"

She stopped talking as she started coughing. Taking the offered cloth, she wiped her mouth and Jason saw the blood on the cloth.

"Your grandfathers saw this attack coming, they tried to warn the government, but they was ridiculed by them. So he took his fortune, built his companies and prepared. It was his foresight that made what you have possible. Now as of this day, I'm promoting you to the rank of Admiral. Get this fleet to safety. Watch over my nieces and may the Lords of Kobol watch over you. So say we all…" she said as she laid back in her bed, closed her eyes and took a shallow breath.

The monitors started going off as Ensign Sara Stark shut the recorder off and handed Jason a small box. "Congratulations Admiral Wallington."

The door flew open and Doctor Connors ran into the room with her staff behind her. She reached out and lifted the woman's arm and checked her pulse. With none detected, she pulled the blanket up and covered her patient's head.

"She was a courageous woman, who tried to do her duty as she saw fit," she said as she let the blanket go.

"Yes she was, and she will be sorely missed," Jason replied as he opened the box to show admiral stars.

"So say we all," Beth said as the two younger Starks started crying.

**Captain's Day Cabin:**

**Three days later**

Jason was sitting at his desk, going over his reports. He had announced the Admirals last wishes, and played the tape she had pre recorded for the fleet. Several ships were furious over the martial law, but he had laid down the law. Follow his orders, or be left behind. The ships had quickly succumbed to the threat.

"How the frak are they tracking us?" Jason snapped as he tossed the clipboard full of reports on his desk.

"Sir, I don't know. But I think we need to find a place to hide and do a ship-by-ship search. I dispatched that picture of that human looking Cylon to all ships four days ago; we found four of them so far. They have been brought to the _Sword_ and are now in isolation," Lisa reported, and then added, "We interviewed some of the survivors from Memnon, and they reported seeing two more sets. One was a blond woman, the other a black man. I have some of the survivors giving descriptions to a couple of artiest I found. Hopefully that will help…"

"I think we need to do a mandatory identification system. I want Colonial-Intel to set up a computer system that we can put in everyone's identity so we can look for more of those human looking Cylons. It seems they are clones, so maybe we've picked up some more that look different," Jason said as he laid the photo down.

"Lisa, I want you to dispatch some marines to each ship they were found on. Go over them with a fine tooth. They're has to be a tracking device. Also have the scan crews, check every wave length for anything that is out ordinary," Jason ordered as he stretched his arms over his shoulder and picked up the new tablet that Lisa had brought in with her.

Reading the first report, it was on the status of the _Goliath._ The _Trawler Hope_ had done some rearranging. The hulk of the _Nebula_ was once again locked onto the bottom of the ship, and the _Goliath_ was floating inside the huge hangar undergoing repairs.

The report also stated that the crippled hulks of six flattops, two colonial liners and two electronic ships were attached to her exterior hard ports. Left behind where they were found was most of the wreckage of the Battlestar _Thor_, except for the bow, one landing bay, and the main engines, which were intact.

They were attached to the Valcin Recovery Station in one of her smaller repair bays. Four hundred and six survivors were found in the wreckage of the _Thor,_ and her disabled Vipers.

"Sir, your father reports the _Goliath's_ engines, weapons and internal systems should be up in running in a week.

"Good, as soon as she is back with the fleet, transfer four squadrons of fighters over to her. We need to spread them out. The next attack on our bays could really hurt us…"

"Sir, I have an idea on that. The _Nebula's_ landing bays are intact. She is just missing her bow. What about stationing Vipers on it? They can land and take off from the _Trawler_ and help protect the fleet against attacks. I mean they are pressurized, and she's getting power from the _Trawler_ right now while they rebuild the interior of the ship," Lisa stated.

"That will work, get it done…"

"Red alert. All hands man your battle stations. We have Dradis contacts!" came across the speakers as the two of them looked up at it.

_**First Edited by **_

_**Final Edit By **_

Battlestar Galactica™ is a registered trademark and copyright (©) Glen Larson & the SciFi Channel. Thank you to the Battlestar Wiki and The Battlestar Galactica Role Playing Game, Battlestar Prometheus have proven invaluable for the information they contain. All material found in this story is for entertainment purposes. No copyright infringement should be inferred or is intended. Battlestar Sword and all its original characters and story lines presented here are the copyright (©) of their creator (©) 2010.


	7. Chapter 6

**Battlestar Sword**

**Chapter Six**

**Flight for Survival**

**The Cylons were created by Man.**

**They were created to make life easier on the Twelve Colonies.**

**And then the day came when the Cylons decided to kill their masters.**

**After a long and bloody struggle, an armistice was declared.**

**The Cylons left for another world to call their own.**

**A remote space station was built...**

**...where Cylon and Human could meet and maintain diplomatic relations.**

**Every year, the Colonials send an officer.**

**The Cylons send no one.**

**No one has seen or heard from the Cylons in over forty years....**

**Until Now.**

**Sword CIC:**

Jason and Lisa ran onto the command deck and slid to a halt at the Dradis board. They quickly took in the six blips at extreme range. Several Vipers were under full power to get to them as Jason looked over at the Dradis officer.

"Boris, what are they?" Jason asked.

"Not sure. No IFF on them, so Golden Darts are checking them out just in case," the young lieutenant replied.

"Athena, get the Silver Darts and Hell Hounds ready for launch. Keep the Black Pyramids for reserve," Jason ordered the CAG officer.

"Right away, Admiral," Major Athena Rivers said as she picked up the handset and gave the orders.

On the monitors, Vipers started launching from the launching tubes at four every ten seconds. One minute after launching, the two squadrons were in the air to help defend the fleet from attack as more fighters were launched from station Valcin.

**Golden Darts:**

**Viper 92927:**

**Captain Shyly 'Hawkeye' Pain**

Shyly led her squadron towards the ships in the distance, she was watching her Dradis screen but was relying on her Mark Ones as well. Passing through a small asteroid shower, she came upon the ships. The scanners quickly identified the ships for her. The first three she saw were the old Mark Three flattop recovery ships built thirty-nine years before the first Cylon war. The next was a _Caspian_ class tanker, another ancient ship, built ten years before the war. It was the last ship that shocked the hell out her. It was a _Tornado_ class assault cruiser built before the war as well. Most were destroyed during the war, or went missing. Banking her ship, she flew along the length. Under the meteor damage, she saw the ship had taken was the name _Caprica Dreams_ as she neared the bow.

Activating her communications gear, she said, "This is Hawkeye. You're not going to believe this. I have three _MK 3_ flattops, one _Caspian _class tanker and an old _Tornado_ class assault cruiser, _Caprica Dreams_. All five ships are drifting, and I see no sign of life. They look like they were shot up years ago. There is also some debris from destroyed ships, what class I don't… Wait _Sword,_ I have another set of Dradis contacts on the edge of the system. Do you wish me to investigate?"

"Hawkeye, investigate. We are doing a search on the _Caprica Dreams_ at this time," came the reply from the flagship.

Shyly turned her head and looked at the rest of the squadron out the canopy before issuing her orders, "Hawkeye to rest of the squadron, Spitfire, you're with me. Cannonball, you have command of the rest of the squadron, watch these ships."

"Roger Hawkeye, Cannonball has command. Stay sharp Hawkeye," came the reply from Lieutenant Roger Cain.

"Have your six, Hawkeye," Lieutenant Samantha 'Spitfire' Flowers quickly replied as she banked her fighter to follow her boss.

Shyly pressed the button for full power and the tiny ship boosted to full speed as her afterburners kicked in. After twenty seconds, they shut off and the two fighters hurtled to the edge of the system at the speed they had reached. Using the inertia that they had built, they whipped around a large asteroid that was tumbling through space and around a second one that was hiding the ship. As they burst around the second chunk of rock, the vessel came into sight.

"FRAK ME! A CYLON BASE SHIP!" Shyly screamed into the communications system, as she tried to turn away from the enemy vessel, but it was to close.

Shyly started firing her cannons into the enemy ship as she turned and then realized she wasn't being fired upon.

"Hawkeye, we're on the way!" came from Cannonball.

"Negative, stay where you are. Cylon base ship is dead in space," Shyly reported as she looked at the damaged ship. There were hundreds of holes in the hull, and looked like she had been turned into Tauron cheese. She noticed it was different from the ones she had recently fought; it was more like the models in the Colonial Museum back on Caprica.

"Hawkeye, this is Sword Actual. Report on target. You say she's dead in the water?" came through her speakers.

"Yes, Sir. Sir, she looks like one of the old baseships from the first war. Do you wish me to destroy her?"

"Negative, I'm dispatching Raptors and the _Flax_ to your location. They will check out all the ships. Keep an eye on them, but watch your fuel."

"Aye-aye, Admiral. Hawkeye out," she replied as she turned once more back to the baseship. The two-tiered hull was blackened with damage, the central span had a dozen holes in it that had been ripped through her. Three of her four hangars were gutted wreckage, the fourth was open to space and she could see a dozen Raiders hanging in their cradles.

**Baseship Aurora**

"Bzzzzz…" crackle of power spikes… "power at ten percent and climbing came from the central computer. Warning… Warning… Warning… Colonial forces closing with the ship. Launch all Raiders… Raider's launching."

Down in the hangar bay, a dozen heavy Raiders started powering up. Their old sensors reached out and found the enemy as they launched from their catapults. The first was Raider 2347 and it quickly armed its weapons. It noticed its missiles were not activating as it turned towards the Vipers and started firing on the pair of colonial fighters.

**Colonial Viper** **92927:**

Shyly jerked her fighter around by using the thrusters, flying in full reverse, she was faster than the ancient Raiders chasing her. Firing her cannons, she hit the lead Raider and it exploded into ruin. With a grin, she shoved her throttle to full forward thrust and hurtled towards the enemy. Her wingman was right on her tail. Cannon shells ripped through the enemy fighters as the baseship started firing her few remaining weapon systems.

"This is Hawkeye, enemy fighters launched from the baseship, the ship is active but with very few weapons. Golden Darts get your asses in here," Shyly ordered as she ripped through the ten remaining fighters. Three blew up, as they opened fire on her. One Cylon Raider dropped on to her tail. She knew she was dead, then it blew up. Checking her Dradis, she saw that no one was near it when it exploded. Then a second exploded as it came directly at her. The remaining five took off after Spitfire's Viper and rained death down on the ship.

"Spitfire bank and turn, get under them!" Hawkeye shouted into the mic.

"I'm trying! I can't shake them!" Spitfire replied as she jinked and yawed her Viper.

Shyly dropped on the tail of the five Raiders and opened fire on them. Armor piercing rounds stitched the first Raider as three missiles dropped from three of the fighters. One went spiraling off into the asteroid, the second exploded prematurely and the Raider flew through the debris and exploded. The third missile detonated just behind Spitfire's Viper. It went tumbling end over end as the fourth Raider fired and pieces of the hull went flying as the cannon rounds ripped the fighter apart.

"Spit! Eject!" Shyly shouted as she fired her missiles into the pack of fighters and three blew up when the homing missiles went right up their tailpipes.

"Ejecti…" came through the speakers as the remaining fighter flipped over and came barreling back at Shyly at full speed. Firing their cannons, the two fighters headed directly towards each other.

Smoke started filling Shyly's cabin as her ship took damage from the incoming rounds. A large thud was heard and panels started flashing on her boards showing heavy damage. Trying to adjust her heading, the Viper refused to budge as the Raider grew larger in her cockpit.

Reaching down between her legs, she grabbed the handle. The last thing she saw as she yanked on it was a burst of smoke as the ejection seat fired. She went flying up and away from her craft. She felt the explosion as the two ships rammed each other with a combined impact of over two thousand miles an hour. She blacked out when her head hit the headrest, hard.

**Sword CIC:**

"Sir, we just lost contact with Hawkeye and Spitfire," Boris said as the ship headed for the enemy baseship.

"Athena, prepare SAR units for search and rescue," Jason ordered as the klaxon continued to sound in the room.

"Shut that damn thing off," he said as he reached out and touched the Dradis screen and the area where the baseship was hiding enlarged as the klaxon shut off. It was still hidden behind the asteroids and he looked over at the navigator and issued his next orders, "Ensign Holloway, five degrees to port, let's get around those rocks."

Rick quickly adjusted their course and replied, "Sir, course adjusted."

Jason reached over and picked up the handset. "All batteries, when you have a lock on the baseship. Open fire. Don't wait for commands from the CIC. That is all," he ordered and then hung the set up.

"Dradis Report! Incoming Cylon baseship to port, distance five thousand miles!" Boris shouted.

"FIRE!"

**Baseship Alpha, above Caprica:**

Cavil stood with his hands in the data stream. He was going over the reports that were flooding in from the other baseships. Opening his eyes, he looked at the number two and four.

"_Galactica_ is in the Prolmar Sector. I will be taking five baseships after her to destroy her. The Battlestar _Orion_ is heading for the Cyrnus Galaxies, dispatch three baseships to destroy her. The Battlestar _Sword_ is heading for Memnon. She has the most ships with her. Dispatch ten additional baseships to hunt them down and destroy them. Dispatch additional baseships to destroy the other survivors. Also find out where the _Providence_ is hiding and destroy her. The _Hermes_ is still being tracked, and I want the _Victorious_ group destroyed. Dispatch more baseships after them. We have the location. Just make sure you send enough ships to destroy them. I'm taking _Alpha_ out after the _Galactica_ now that's she's repaired_._ Make sure you don't fail. You're dismissed," Cavil ordered as he sent orders to the hybrid to prepare to jump as the two and four left the command deck.

"_Fuel is sparse… Light shall bend to darkness… Beware the blade that comes out of the dark, the dark is their home for now, but they shall come to the light again, and strength shall be reborn… end line,"_ the hybrid muttered in her tank.

Cavil looked at the hybrid and turned back to the four still with him and said, "Send additional ships with those going after the _Sword. _Agreed?"

"It's is agreed," the two, four and five said as the four left the room.

"_One… three… five… none shall survive the blade. Tylium shall be found where it shouldn't be found… end line."_

**Sword CIC:**

"Sir, enemy baseship destroyed. Damage to port landing bay, we cannot launch or land until the bay is repaired. Heavy damage along the whole portside. Search and rescue going in now," Boris reported as the rest of the uninjured crew climbed to their feet. The ship continued to shudder under the massive fire of the rail guns as they swung around and targeted the second baseship.

"Get me a fleet report. What about mid-deck where we took that last hit?" Jason asked as he knelt and checked on Colonel Hays. Seeing she was alive, he said, "Need a med tech here."

"Med techs are on the way. Ensign Myers is dead, Sir," Boris replied as he covered his friends eyes.

"Hank was a good DC officer, he will be sorely missed. Get me a damage report and find a replacement for him," Jason ordered as he pressed a handkerchief to his forehead to stop the bleeding.

"You know? I think we need to move the CIC, the Cylons know right where it is, and they're always attacking it first. What about that other baseship?" Jason added as he looked around the damaged room.

"Sir, I think you're right about the CIC, and the second baseship just blew up," Boris reported.

"Very well. Send in the SAR Raptors, and the tugs. Let's get those ships aboard, check them out and prepare out next jump.

"Sir, reports state heavy damage to the freighters _Rain,_ and _Misfit._ Light damages to the botanical cruiser _Hasp_, and mining ship _Titanium._ The yacht _Blessed Hope_ was destroyed with all hands. Total dead is 143, and 437 wounded. Wounded are being transported over to the _Comfort,"_ Boris reported.

"Thank you, Boris, get some replacement crew up here to man the stations for the dead and wounded," Jason ordered as the med techs started carrying the wounded and dead out of the CIC.

"Yes, Sir."

Jason turned, picked up the handset and said into it, "Hunter report to the CIC," as he hung up, he asked, "Athena, how badly are we hurt?"

"Sir, we lost fourteen Vipers, with six fatalities including the commander of the Hell Hounds. I will move Lieutenant Mathew Blaze up to take over for Striker," she replied as she pushed the med tech away who was trying to bandage her hand. She took the roll of gauze, wrapped it tightly around her hand, and tucked it in.

"See to it," Jason said as the med tech had him sit so she could look at the wound on his head.

"Sir, you need to stop hitting your head. Otherwise, this cut is never going to heal," Med tech Lori Cybil said as she started to fasten new stitches on the wound, sealing it up.

Jason chuckled at the woman's comment and pain lanced through his head. When she was finished she offered him a packet of pills.

"Take two of these if you get a headache, if not, just save them," Lori said as she closed her kit and stood up.

"Thank you, I will if I need them," Jason replied as he looked around the damaged room as he muttered, "we need a place to hide so we can do repairs."

"Sir, where?" Boris asked as he pulled up the limited star maps of the area.

"I don't know. I want it far enough away that we can have some distance from Cylons… An asteroid field or a nebula but they will look in those areas," Jason said as he changed maps and stopped.

"Hmmm," he hummed as he looked at Athena's Heart just three hundred light years past the redline. Quickly changing the screen to another nebula, he looked at that one and changed it again.

"Boris, when Hunter returns to the ship, I want her to report to my quarters… never mind," he said as the doors opened and the black-haired woman walked in.

"Hunter! My office. Now!" Jason ordered as he walked past the woman saying, "Boris you have the bridge."

Walking down the hall, Hunter ran to catch up to her boss. Tucking her helmet under her arm, she asked, "Sir. Did I do something wrong?"

"No, Ellen. I have a mission for you and half your squadron. If you're game," James said as they reached his office and went in. Seated at twin desks were his new aides working over the tons of paperwork he had accumulated when he became an admiral.

"Admiral, we have the reports on the ships of the fleet for you," Sara Stark said as she and her sister stood up.

"Later, Sara. Ladies, right now please see that Hunter and I are not disturbed," Jason asked as they walked past the two twins, and stepped into his office.

"Yes, Sir," the twins replied and sat back down.

Jason started to close the door, and stuck his head out, "Sara, Lori, you don't need to stand when I come into the room if you're working… and thank you," he said as he closed the door and sealed it.

**Admiral's Cabin**

Jason walked around his desk and sat down as he gestured to Hunter to sit as well. Shuffling through the maps scattered on his desk, he pulled the star chart with Athena's Heart and the surrounding systems on it.

"Hunter, take a look at this," he said as he laid the map out flat and set a glass on each corner.

Ellen set her helmet in the other chair, stood up and leaned over the map. She saw the writing on the map and she knew right where they were heading. "Sir, what do you want me to do?"

Picking up a marker, he said, "What I want you to do is prepare eleven of your Raptors for long range jumps. I want you to send two of them to each of these systems via these systems," as he pointed at four systems and then marked them with the numbers one through four. "That's ten systems for each pair of Raptors thirty light years at a time and then back to this location," he said as he marked a six on the map sixty light years away.

"What about the last three Raptors?" Hunter asked.

"You and the others are going here!" Jason said as he pressed the marker against Athena's Heart.

"That's a pulsar!" Hunter said.

"Yes, it is. I want to hide in the clouds for a few weeks so we can do repairs to the ship and get the _Goliath_ up and running. We also need to set up an identification system for all the survivors as well as spread the survivors out to all the ships of the fleet. We have some ships that are barely populated and some like the _General Hall_ and _Armistead_ that are heavily populated with tens of thousands of civilians. During…"

The knocking on his door interrupted him and he picked up his handset, and snapped, "I said I'm not to be disturbed… Good send them in."

The door opened and his mother and Colonel Hays came into the room.

"How you feeling Lisa?" he asked.

"Fine, just a headache. Doctor Connors wanted to keep me, but I said I was fine and she had more important people to work on than me," she replied as she sat down.

"Good, I'm giving Hunter her next mission for her Raptor pilots," Jason said as he looked at his mom.

"Jason, I have the inventory on all the food. I've also had Valcin industries photographing all the civilians that the station is carrying as well as the identification of the survivors. We had some resistance, but once your father explained that he would eject any non-complying ship or civilian from the station, he hasn't had any problems since then. We are having them filling out one of Valcin's standard job applications that was modified so we know what they can do. Once finished, we have a team set up with secure computers to store all the information once it's been inputted. We should know if we have anyone who looks alike. I wanted to do DNA but your father said we didn't have enough sticks to use on the civilians so we went with retina scans," Major Elisa Wallington said as she sat down.

"Thanks, Mom. Appreciate the help. So at this time, I'm promoting you to Chief of Intelligence, at the rank of Colonel," Jason replied as he reached into his desk, pulled out a small box and tossed it to her.

"What? I'm a logistics officer, not a spy," Elisa gasped out in surprise.

"You're both now Mom, now get to work. You can have anyone you need… within reason that is," Jason said with a smile.

"Grrr. You'll regret this one day, oh spawn of mine. But I'll do your dirty work for you. I want Jo. She was one of the best field agent to come out of Military Intelligence, before she lost her arm," she said as she changed her rank insignia.

"You got her, but I still want her to run the Academy when she can," Jason said as he thought of Josephine Ball, the head mistress of the Archon Academy.

"Like she would give up all those kids. They're like her family," Elisa replied as she walked to the door and left the room.

Jason watched as the door closed and shook his head sadly as he thought of the stern woman he learned from twenty years before.

**Nineteen years before the holocaust:**

**Redline:**

**Battlestar **_**Galaxy:**_

_They had just finished destroying the two heavy cruisers with nuclear missiles that Jo had located with her black ops teams, when they were jumped by enemy small craft._

"_Break right, Jo, he's coming up on your six!" Jason said to his commanding officer. _

"_Trying! This frakking pirate is good!" Jo replied as she banked her Raptor around and avoided the cannon fire from the old Scimitar shuttle._

_Explosions blossomed across the back end of the Raptor as the second shuttle fired a banking shot from where he was chasing Jason through the asteroids. In the distance, the Galaxy had jumped in with her battle group and was firing her rail guns at the four pirate cruisers that had jumped in to attack the convoy. Somehow they had known they were coming. When they had appeared, explosions had ripped through the launch tubes of the Vipers. Grounding all of them and leaving only the Raptors for air defense._

_Jason flipped his Raptor over on its back and fired his cannons, the rounds catching the shuttle in the engines. The shells must have caught its fuel tanks, because it blew up before it could adjust its heading. _

_Flipping back over, his eyes were searching for Jo when he heard her scream in agony and say she was hit. Checking the Dradis, he couldn't tell which contact was a ship or a spinning asteroid._

_Turning the Raptor around, he headed for the last location he had seen her. He was almost there when he saw a flash as something jumped._

"_Jo, are you there?" he asked._

"_Yeah, I'm here kid… I took a bad one to my arm. Stephen is dead," came the reply._

"_Where are you?" he asked as he headed for where he saw the flash._

"_I'm setting up to send you a pulse… Jason, you did good…"_

_Jason waited for her to continue and when she didn't he was worried. Five minutes of searching found her Raptor drifting and three minutes after that, he had her aboard. He saw her left arm was badly damaged. With a quick jump, they were heading in to the Galaxy's landing bay where they had to…"_

**Admiral's Cabin:**

**Battlestar **_**Sword:**_

"Sir, what's the rest of your plan?" Hunter asked.

Shaking his head, Jason replied, "Sorry. Wool gathering. Yes, I want you to take three of your Raptors to Athena's Heart. After your second jump, the third Raptor will return to us if it's clean, while you find us a place to hide and do our repairs. Can do?"

"Can do! I'll find you a place, I swear it," Hunter said as Jason rolled up the map and handed it to her.

"I want that back. It's the only one I have," Jason ordered.

"Don't need it. I have a photographic memory and a hoard of astrogation maps in my cabin. We will launch in forty minutes," Hunter said saluted and walked out of the room.

"What are my orders," Lisa asked as she turned back to her boss.

"Colonel, I want all ships ready to jump as soon as the Raptors are away. So make sure everyone has their FTL drives spooled up. I want to do two quick jumps… I know, a lot of people will be puking their guts up, but I want to get sixty light years from this place before another baseship appears. The toasters know it makes us sick, and I am hoping they won't think we did a double jump that fast.

"With that much distance, look what it will give them to check," Jason added as he unrolled the sector map.

Lisa looked at the map and saw it was filled with hundreds of systems. It could take the Raiders days to find them or maybe just minutes. "We'll have to keep a cap up constantly. In fact it would have to be several full squadrons to protect the fleet. Otherwise, we could be found and before we could respond they'd jump away with our location," Lisa stated.

"I agree, and thanks to my dad's station, we have four hundred Vipers over there and they're turning out twenty a day for us. We just need more pilots. So get on the horn throughout the fleet and get them. I know we rescued a lot of disabled ships with pilots on board. Hell, the _Nebula _has three hundred pilots alone that survived," Jason said as he pulled a second map out and added, "I want you to get to get ahold of Captain Willis over on the _Archon_. When he raided Roanoke Anchorage he picked up some crated Vipers, a squadron of them. Get them over here, uncrated and operational."

"What are they?" Lisa asked.

"Mark VIII, two seat Vipers," Jason replied.

"Well, training Vipers are a good idea…"

"They're not trainers. They are full-fledged attack Vipers. Crew of two, second pilot faces backwards and controls the two belly cannons that can cover the stern and sides of the Viper. It requires a pilot and an electronic counter measures officer. They are also FTL capable," Jason replied with a grin.

"Sir, you're joking?" Lisa asked with wide eyes.

"Nope, she was a new design that came out of R&D six months ago. My dad was part of the team. Helped design the stern guns for the ship and was originally intended for auto control… which I still think would be a good idea, but Admiral Nagala wanted it human controlled, so it couldn't malfunction and kill a friendly."

"Hmmm, thank god on that. We lost too many as it is. But where are we going to find enough people to man them? Especially ECO officers," Lisa asked.

"I don't know. Maybe the Archon cadets," Jason asked and then realized most of those cadets were under fifteen, and too young to go into combat.

"Set condition one throughout the ship. We're launching Raptors. SAR units are incoming to the starboard landing bay. Admiral Wallington to the CIC!" blasted through the speakers and bringing their conversation to a halt.

Jason looked up at the speaker and then the clock. Seeing almost half an hour had passed he tossed his stylus on his desk, "I guess we're needed on the bridge," he said as he walked to the door.

The battered ship started launching her Raptors. As soon as they paired up, they vanished in a burst of light as six Raptors painted white came in and landed. In the distance, the tugs from the station grappled with the disabled ships and towed them to the _Trawler_ where they would be locked onto the external hard points.

Admiral Wallington walked into the CIC and looked around. The damaged systems were under repair, and new crewmembers were at the stations that still worked. Two repair techs were lugging out one of the heavy monitors that hung over the weapons station while two more replaced it with a new one from the stores.

"Report!"

"Sir, all SAR units are aboard. Raptors one through eleven have jumped. Spitfire and Hawkeye have been recovered. Spitfire is critical," Ensign Oliver Thaddeus reported.

"Thank you Ensign," Jason replied as he picked up the handset and said, "Fleet wide."

"Yes, Sir, you're on fleet wide communications," Oliver replied as his hands flew over the board.

"This is Admiral Wallington to all ships of the fleet. We have defeated another Cylon baseship, but I'm sure more are on the way. We suffered minor casualties, and damage to some ships is minimal. The _Sword_ is still in fighting trim, and we can launch and recover fighters at this time.

"I want all ships to spool up their FTLs for a double jump. As soon as one of our scouts returns, we will be jumping to an undisclosed location. I will send the coordinates to you, when Raptor eleven returns, and not until then. After that, we will jump several times. I want to get as much distance between us and the Cylons as possible, so we can make repairs, and move some of you civilians off the crowded ships.

"If we find a hiding place, I hope to be able to hide for at least two weeks. Good luck and may the Lords of Kobol watch over us. So say us all," Jason said as he hung the handset up.

"So say us all," echoed through the fleet. Ten minutes after the last ship was docked with the _Trawler,_ marines were going through the hulks, finding skeletons and mummified remains of the crews.

"Sir, Raptor 12725 has jumped in. She reports that the sky is clear," Oliver reported from the communications station.

"Good, send the coordinates, Ensign Thaddeus," Jason ordered as he watched the Raptor land in the starboard bay.

"Coordinates sent."

"Retract the bays."

"Retracting," Colonel Hays reported.

"Jump!"

_**First Edited by Bill Lewis**_

_**Final Edit By TeNderLoin**_

Battlestar Galactica™ is a registered trademark and copyright (©) Glen Larson & the SciFi Channel. Thank you to the Battlestar Wiki and The Battlestar Galactica Role Playing Game, Battlestar Prometheus have proven invaluable for the information they contain. All material found in this story is for entertainment purposes. No copyright infringement should be inferred or is intended. Battlestar Sword and all its original characters and story lines presented here are the copyright (©) of their creator (©) 2010.


	8. Chapter 7

**Battlestar Sword**

**Chapter Seven**

**Athena's Heart**

(Pulsars are highly magnetized, rotating neutron stars,

that emit a beam of electromagnetic radiation.)

**The Cylons were created by Man.**

**They were created to make life easier on the Twelve Colonies.**

**And then the day came when the Cylons decided to kill their masters.**

**After a long and bloody struggle, an armistice was declared.**

**The Cylons left for another world to call their own.**

**A remote space station was built...**

**...where Cylon and Human could meet and maintain diplomatic relations.**

**Every year, the Colonials send an officer.**

**The Cylons send no one.**

**No one has seen or heard from the Cylons in over forty years....**

**Until Now.**

**Battlestar **_**Sword:**_

**CIC:**

The ships appeared in a system with a white dwarf star, there were six planets in the system along with an asteroid belt that circled near the third planet. The minutes counted down as the crew of the _Sword_ did their assigned jobs. Admiral Wallington took the offered cup of coffee, and took a sip as he waited for his reports.

"Dradis has no contacts," Lieutenant Boris Billings reported as he looked up from the screen.

"All ships reporting in, Admiral. Sir, message from the _Sagittaron Sunrise_, she's a liner owned by Sagittaron Spaceways, carrying over five thousand people. They report that their FTL computer blew and requesting to dock with the station to replace the system," Lieutenant Bryon Mason said.

"That's one of those big liners, if I remember rightly. Have her dock externally to the _Trawler._ I don't think she can dock with the station at this time," Jason said as he set his cup down and turned to his fleet communications officer.

""Yes, Sir, sending your orders," Bryon replied as he turned back and leaned over one of his peoples shoulders.

"Estimated time to dock is five minutes," Bryon replied over his shoulder to his boss, but he had turned back to the Dradis board.

Time slipped past as the ships of the fleet moved through the system. They passed the sixth planet, and it was revealed to be nothing but an ice ball as far as they could tell from the ships sensors.

"Sir, counter is going," Captain Hays said as she stretched her back.

"Thank you, I know. Send the coordinates for the next jump," Jason ordered as he watched the hundreds of ships moving on his Dradis board.

"Coordinates being sent," Boris stated as he started typing in the code

"Count down for next jump?"

"Nine minutes until all ships will be able to jump," Boris replied as he set the counter.

Jason slowly walked around the CIC, watching as his crew worked while Lisa, the new captain went through the ship's reports. Sitting down in his chair, he leaned back and picked up his cup. He took another drink while the timer flipped from five minutes to four.

"Sir, liner _Sunrise_ has docked with the _Trawler,_ and their mass has been added to the _Trawlers_ next FTL jump. Engineers are moving into the ship now to initiate repairs," Bryon reported.

"Good," Jason replied as he picked up the handset, and said, "Fleet wide, please."

"Yes, Sir," Bryon replied and turned to his station and started flipping switches, "Sir, you're on."

"Ladies and Gentlemen of the fleet, that's one jump down. Several more to go. I know a lot of you are sick from all the jumps, but we need to get further away, and find a hiding place. I think I've found one and that's where we're heading. Once we get there, we'll be doing repairs and moving people around to ease the crowding. I want to thank all the crews for going above and beyond the call of duty for your passengers.

"If we're to survive what's been thrust upon us, then we must do as Admiral Stark wanted. If we are to do that then the twelve colonies, as we knew them, are no more. That means we are not Capricans, Leonis, Picons… there is just the human race. And that race must, and I repeat, MUST unite, or we're all doomed.

"There will be no peace with the Cylons, we tried that and they tried to annihilate us, forty years after the first peace. So, from this day forward, we must strive to rebuild our military, rebuild our civilization and rebuild our population.

"Therefore, at this time, I'm issuing my second permanent order. From this day forward, there will be no more abortions. If you don't want the child, it will go up for adoption to someone else to raise. I know, you're all going to scream about your rights. But what about our rights to survive, as a species? To do that, we need the young to be alive for our next generation. The next generation of warriors for the fleet, the doctors, and teachers… so please, I ask you to think of why I'm doing this. Now, we are jumping in one minute, so good luck everyone. _Sword _out," Jason said as he hung the phone up. Turning to the Dradis board, he ordered, "All ships… jump!"

Ships started vanishing in flashes of bright white light. Finally, the great Battlestar jumped.

_**Raptor 2319:**_

**Athena's Heart:**

The Raptor appeared outside the pulsar, the Dradis came on and it came back with dozens of contacts.

"I have contacts, bearing 54.5 degrees to port. Scanners say they are full of Tylium," Lieutenant Bryan 'Butch' Hanson reported.

"By the lords of Kobol, it's beautiful," Captain Ellen 'Hunter' Ricks replied as she looked at the pulsing clouds of gas.

"And deadly, I'm detecting heavy radiation in some parts. But I think I found a place to hide at. Section nine, sixteen degrees negative azimuth," Butch replied.

"I see it, let's jump over there and look," Ellen said as she turned her wireless on and said into the microphone, "Slipper, stay here and keep an eye out for us. We're checking something out."

"Roger, Hunter, stay sharp!" came the reply from Lieutenant Anita 'Slipper' Hays in Raptor 6345.

"Roger," Ellen said, and pressed the icon for the FTL computer and the ship vanished to reappear next to the opening.

Ellen turned the ship and headed into the narrow passageway that had formed between the clouds of gases. As they flew, it seemed like the area was widening for them and after making several turns they came out into an area, that was large enough for six fleets the size of the one they were with, to hide in. Several large asteroids were drifting to their right and their onboard scanners detected Tylium, iron, gold, titanium and many other metals that would be needed for repairs.

"I think we found a temporary home," Butch said as the scans came back.

"I agree," Hunter replied. She turned the wireless on and said, "Slipper, do you read?"

Static came over the wireless, and she turned and headed for the exit. Once she came out of the channel, she asked again, "Slipper do you read me?"

"Read you loud and clear Hunter," Slipper replied.

"Good, jump back to the fleet and lead them here. The word is Bolt Hole. We'll keep an eye out for anything dangerous," Hunter ordered.

"I'm gone," Slipper said.

**Battlestar Sword:**

**CIC:**

Admiral Wallington was sitting in his command chair going over the reports of the fleet. It had been three hours since they'd jumped to this new location and they were waiting for the return of their Raptors. Around the fleet, the warships cruised, keeping track of the ships and rendering assistance if needed.

"Admiral the _Illumini _is calling again. A Mister Howards, Walter Howards is demanding to speak with you_**,**_**" **Ensign Oliver Thaddeus reported.

"The _Illumini_?" Jason asked.

"Yes, Sir, she is aGemenon Super Liner we picked up. She's carrying over eleven thousand survivors on her ten decks," Oliver said.

"OK, I'll take it here," Jason replied as he picked up his handset and waited.

"Look you son of a fraken whore, I want to talk with Admiral Wallington…"

"This is Admiral Wallington. Mister Howards, what do you want?"

"Umm... Sorry, but I've been trying to talk with you for three days now and I keep getting the run around. I demand that you reinstate the civilian government and allow them to take over operations of this fleet…"

"No."

"What do you mean no? You have to. The military is always subordinate to civilian law," the man screamed.

"I'll give you twelve reasons why I won't do so at this time. You want to hear them?" Jason asked.

"What twelve reasons could you give me for a military dictatorship?" Howards snapped.

"Here are the twelve reasons. Aerilon, Aquaria, Canceron, Caprica, Gemenon, Leonis, Libran, Picon, Sagittaron, Scorpia, Tauron, and Virgon. Is that enough reasons? I could list twenty billion dead, because of people like you who cut the military to the bone so that we couldn't survive a sneak attack."

"But…"

"No I'm following Admiral Stark's orders. She declared martial law, and she told me to keep it in effect until we find a new home and have rebuilt the military where we can survive an all out attack, again. I'm following her orders to the letter and when I'm finished, I hope to have five hundred Battlestars and support ships. We will never be attacked again, because the failures of the Civilian government to keep us safe, will be told to the descendents from now to a thousand years from now. So, once again, the answer is no," Jason said and hung up the phone.

"Sir, Slipper just jumped in and says bolt hole is clear," Oliver reported.

"Fantastic, Oliver. Commander Hays, notify all ships we will be jumping in thirty minutes," Jason ordered as his aide filled his cup with fresh coffee.

"Thank you, Ensign," Jason said to the young man, as he hooked the tablets back up and picked up his cup.

Around him, the CIC crew started sending out orders and coordinates for a series of three jumps. As the ships checked in, they were marked off on the master list. Around the fleet, the FTL drives started powering up. When the countdown reached zero, the ships started jumping in waves. Finally it was the _Sword's_ turn and she vanished in the blink of an eye.

She reappeared thirty light years away. FTL drives quickly counted down from five minutes and then they were gone again. The final jump brought them into the location they wanted, and the _Sword_ led her ragged fleet into the pulsar cloud.

Once inside the pocket, the station slowly unfurled her four giant docks and ships started docking with her while the refinery sent out the mining ships to start mining the asteroids that were floating in the pocket. Tylium was sent to the refinery, while the metals that were harvested were sent to the foundry ships to be melted down and turned into the items the fleet needed.

By the end of the first week in the pulsar, the Battlestar _Goliath_ was relaunched and a crew went aboard her under the command of Commander Jeremiah Wilson who had been recovered from the shattered _Thor._ Then the shattered hulk of the _Nebula_ was hauled in and repairs started on her. While over on Valcin Industries space station, the cruiser _Caprica Dreams_ was towed into one of the docks, and gutted of her obsolete systems. Her computer sections were divided up into subsections, to protect her. Her interior was redesigned as well to prevent takeover of the ship by Cylon forces.

Swing out defense shields with gun slits were mounted to the wall to help defend the crew from enemy fire during boarding attempts. The same was done to all the warships. Her main armament was increased from six single barrel heavy rail guns to duel mounts giving her twenty-four heavy KEWs. On the other docks, repairs to the civilian ships are underway while the foundry ships churn out the armor plates, beams, weapons and hundreds of other items needed for a damaged fleet.

By the fourth week, everyone's identification has been issued, and nineteen Cylons infiltrators had been captured. Most were sick from the radiation coming from the pulsar. Several beacons had been located and destroyed as well as arms caches had been found.

Jason Wallington was sitting in his office going over his reports when the door opened. Looking up he saw the twins standing there, and he asked, "Yes, ladies?"

"Sir, its time. We have the fleet report for you. Fleet status reports, and the report from Doctor Connors on those Cylons, you asked for," Ensign Sara Stark reported.

"Come in, both of you, and sit down," Jason said and sat back in his chair.

"Thank you, Admiral," Lori replied as the twin girls sat down with folders in their lap.

"Lori, you go ahead first," Jason said.

"Yes, Sir. As of right now, we have two Battlestars, the _Sword_ and _Goliath_ at full strength. The repairs to the _Sword _have been finished, as have the upgrades to the _Goliath._ The _Goliath_ received twelve new dual batteries, six on her top deck, and six on her ventral. The _Nebula_ is at ninety percent completion, all exterior work is finished, and the interior work is underway now. More defensive weapons have been added to the _Nebula_ including ten more dual rail guns, two to her front arch, and four to each side of the ship, mounted on top of her bays. She has been moved out of the _Trawler's_ hull and the remains of the _Thor _have been moved into the bay. Estimated time of repairs for the _Thor _is eight to fourteen months.

"The cruiser _Caprica Dreams_ is fifty percent rebuilt, and we need to start figuring out a crew for her. Her weapons have been upgraded to modern weapons. _Archon's Hope_ has been refurnished as the fleet classroom ship. All children have been enrolled and their education has continued with the help of the civilian teachers that have come forward. Escort cruiser _Flax,_ is again at one hundred percent. Her four damaged rail guns have been repaired. Her ammunition holds are at one hundred percent as well.

"Military transports _General Armistead_ and _General Hall_ have inventoried all supplies they carry. Their weapons have been upgraded, and the _Hall_ has been turned into a Marine training ship. Her drop ships have been modernized with new weapons and armor. Currently they have the first batch of five hundred marines under training as well as two hundred security troops for the civilian ships.

"Missile storage ship _Archon_ is fully stocked and ready to deliver any missiles the fleet needs. Currently, she has three hundred and fifty of the fifty kiloton missiles, and fifty one hundred kiloton missiles in her hold along with two thousand standard missiles. Twenty missiles are being delivered to her every week from the foundry and electronics ships.

"We have three fleet destroyers (Destroyers _Gaoth, Illumini_, and _Gypsum_), and two escort destroyers (_Swallow _and _Hawk_) are at full readiness, with a full complement of crew. They have been stationed as flankers to the entrance with a Raptor at the entrance of the pulsar and powered down. The frigates _Hyperion, Star, Craving_ and _Aspiration_ are halfway between the destroyers and the fleet. Your father reports the frigate _Desire_ will be up and running in ten days.

"The military freighters _Captain Amanda King_, and _Armor Five_ are stuffed full of supplies for the military along with weapons and hardware. We have three medical ships, the _Hope_, _Athena's Hand_ and _Comfort_. All patients have been returned to their respective ships or in the case of the colonial military personal to station Valcin for reassignment to the fleet.

"The space repair dock, _Trawlers Hope_, is still rebuilding the _Thor_ inside her main dock, her external ports are supplying repairs to civilian ships for internal repairs. Currently the liner _Caprica Seas_ is being modified into a new hospital ship; the _Sagittaron Sunrise_ has just finished replacing their main engine room and FTL drive. Sir, it was sabotage, someone planted a bomb next to the FTL computer and blew it up. Six people were killed.

"We have six botanical cruisers up and running. The _Virgon Delight, Hasp, Sweet Delight__, __Haywood Studies, Astro Sunshine, _and the_ Hyperion One _are running at one hundred percent. The cattle have been separated to each ship along with all the chickens that were recovered from Memnon when we evacuated the planet. The _Virgon Delight, _and the_ Sweet Delight_ have had their FTL drives overhauled and the _Sweet_ _Delight's_ damaged domes have been repaired.

"Of the liners, two are in Valcin's repair docks for repairs. They were badly damaged in the Cylon attacks and are being modified. The _Comet's Journey _was a long haul liner of the Capricorn Line. She is in the process of being converted into a school for the elementary (primary) kids of the fleet. The second is _Star's__ Journey_.She too is a former Capricorn Line long haul liner. The _Star's Journey_ is as long as a Battlestar.

"Your father had a crazy idea. He plans on converting the ship to a munitions factory to manufacture ammo for the fleet, mostly missiles. They have started adding armor plate to her, as well as twenty KEWs and one hundred light defense KEWs…"

"That's a good idea, we need a munitions factory. Sorry I interrupted you. Now, what else, Lori?"

"That's ok, now for the rest of the liners. We have the _Caprica Rose, Caprica Plains, Picon Flower, Gemenon, Oranu, Illumini, Forest of Virgon, Scorpio Path, _and the_ Sagittaron Dream_, and they fore mentioned _Sagittaron Sunrise_.The _Picon's Light_ is a superliner your father hired, _Everest_, _Glory_, _Pacifica, _and the _Astoria_,another superliner. The _Nova, Picon's Hope_, _Lorain Mountain Home, Jenny's Mountain Lake,_ _Mountain Valley,_ and the _Lakes of Hope. _These liners are from the Caprica Lines, Sagittaron Spaceways, Virgon Entertainment, Gemenon Cruise Lines, Eversun and the Gemenon Space Line. They are carrying roughly seventy-six thousand five hundred survivors along with fifteen thousand crewmen…"

Jason softly whistled and said, "That's an average of thirty five hundred per ship…"

"Some have over ten thousand, those are the two superliners. The rest are average, but some are higher," Lori stated.

"I see. Please continue," Jason ordered.

"Next are the mining ships. We have eight mining ships all up and running with around three thousand survivors, not counting crew. The ships are as followed, _Hyper__, Maximum Hauler_, _Mineral, Titanium, Alloy Finder, Golden Path, Ragnar One_ and the _Ragnar Two_ they have started processing the asteroids located here.

"Now for the tanker fleet. They have about three thousand survivors scattered on the ships, mostly families. As to the tankers we have the _Sheppard Three, Neosha, William's Folly, Miller's Folly, Twilight's Delivery, Valcin Five _(nicknamed _Overload)__, Valcin Six_(the_Hoist)__, Valcin Seven _(also called _Grumpy) Valcin Nine_(nicknamed _Golden Delivery). _Then, we have the_ Huffer, Dillard, Jessup One, Samuel, Filler, Bethany, Madrid, Masters, Lucky Bird, Majestic _and the old prewar tanker_ Lords of Kobol._

"The _Kobol_ was heavily damaged and your father suggests scrapping her. I think we should rebuild her into another type of ship, say a cargo ship or something. You never know when we will need another ship, but that's up to you and your father. I do believe we have too many tankers to protect. I say keep the five largest and scrap the rest…"

"No, keep her as a tanker; we may need the fuel storage. Yes, they are giant bombs waiting to go off, but that's why they are in the center of the fleet," Jason ordered and Lori wrote a note on the side of her pad.

"The next ships are regular long haul freighters. The first two are food freighters from the Archon Academy on Caprica. They are carrying four thousand survivors and are named the _Archon's Hopeful_, and the _Archon's Hand of God. _The remaining ships are carrying around twenty-four thousand survivors. The ships are the freight haulers _Hoist, Misfit,_ _Seasonal Once,_ _Density, Rain_, _Bosk, Mosk,_ _Shipper 13_, and the _Blight. _The cold storage (frozen) ships _Tawa,_ _Hypatia, Tauron_, _Vegan,_ _Minks, Lori Lee, Velma One _and the three grain haulers_ Memnon, Casper City _and_ Ocean._

"We have two specialty ships and both are those long necked ships. One is a factory ship called the _Polar._ She has a full manufacturing plant installed. Her cargo bays are full of scrap metal; she used to build Vipers for the fleet. The second ship is another long neck class, and is called _Graystone Five._ We have been refused entry to the ship; she is armored, and has no external hatches to lock onto. She has two landing bays, and her captain, a Jason Graystone says that any ship that tries to board without permission will be destroyed.

"Order her blacklisted from fuel and food. If this Jason Graystone wants to play hardball, we can do the same. I want to know what's on that ship and how many survivors," Jason snapped out and wrote a quick note down on his pad.

"Yes, Sir. The next two ships are a pair of cargo barges with two hundred survivors and carrying sixty tons of electronics items. They were carrying the cargo from Caprica to Scorpio. They have both offered their cargo for the fleet. We have three foundry ships, the _Caster, Builder's Dream_ and the _General Dawson Construction_ the three ships are up and running and turning out armor plate for us as well as anything else we need.

"We have nine electronics ships in the fleet, two are crippled prewar ones. They are the _Griffin _and_ Hydra_. Your father had three ships, the former _Harpy _AKA _Valcin Three_, the _Assembler One_, and the _Electron_. The remaining four are owned by Caprican Electrics, they are _Caprica, Electric, Zipper, _and _Lightning._

"We have two prison ships, _Prison One_ and _Nine, One_ has fifteen hundred male prisoners, and the _Nin_e has nineteen hundred female ones. They are under guard constantly. The prisoners were on their way home to Caprica for parole hearings," she said as she picked up her glass of water.

"Send Commander Hays their records, she will go over them. If any should be paroled, then she can have it done. I would like to recruit as many of them as possible into the military. Also see if any are former military, since they would have been recalled to active duty by President Adar. What else, Lori?" Jason asked when the young woman set her glass down from taking a drink.

"Salvage and repair ships. We have your father's ships, they are the, _Reclaim, Retrieve, Renovate,_ _Storm Drain, Valcin One _the former Military Repair ship _Vested,_ and the _Valcin Two another _former Military Repair ship called the_ Horn. _We have three we picked up, the _Drum, Albatross,_ and _Flamingo._ Then we have the three crippled ones from the first war, the _Muscle, Grappler, _and_ Steam. _Your father says six months to bring the three crippled ones online, unless you want to scrap them," Lori said as she handed the folder to her sister and opened the next one.

"No, we may need them. See what they can do to repair them," Jason ordered.

"Yes, Sir. Now for the Colonial Heavies, we picked up quite a few of them. As you know, they don't have names, just numbers; they are _Colonial Heavy 7, 18, 333, 129, 44, 900, 897, 2,_ _189_ and the_ 541._ They have eighteen thousand and fifty survivors on board. The last two ships have one hundred and fifty medical personal, fifty Viper pilots for Valcin industries and three hundred space construction workers and their families..."

"Fantastic, we need all of them. Send that file to Commander Hays, she'll know what to do with them," Jason said.

"Yes, Sir. Now for water tenders, we have four in the fleet. The _Stream, Ocean, Irrigate_, and the _Gorgon._ The Gorgon has fifteen hundred survivors onboard including a thousand children from Leonis Space Docks. We also have two sewage recycling ships with around a hundred and fifty survivors. The ships are _Reuse _and _Recover._ They have been recycling everything they can get their hands on from the battle sites we have fought and turned anything useable over to the foundry and salvage ships.

"We have four space yachts with us; they are the _Suzie's Memory,_ _Blessed Hope,_ _Moonstar's Runner_ and the _Dream Wave_ with around a hundred survivors.

"One of the last ships, before I go into the bulk freighters is the _Duster._She is a former Colonial Heavy, which was bought and modified as a science ship by Caprica onboard are: twelve hundred thirty-six school children, from ages 12 to 18, and their parents who came with them on the trip to study the Hyperion Nebula. Also onboard, are fifty teachers, to teach them about the stars."

"We could use a science ship, try and figure out a way to move them into other ships if you can, that way we can use the _Duster _as a military science ship," Jason said.

"Yes, Sir, but I doubt they will give her up. Now for the long list," Lori replied as she opened a large folder.

For bulk freighters we have the following ships that I have divided up into groups of nine. They are _Hydra, Dragon, Ghost, Long Haul, Bomber One,_ _Sara's Hope_. They are full of supplies. The_ Glory_ ismostly empty; she has twelve empty cargo containers that your father was converting to housing. The ship is captained by Captain Eugene Hands, owner operator of the _Glory _for the last three years_._ Captain Hands rescued one hundred seventy-six survivors from the _Trails of _Hope after she was crippled at the Leonis Space Dock.

"Freighter _Aspin Woods _was empty when we left the colonies, but was filled with tons of food from Memnon. Her eight cargo containers are packed with canned food and one is filled with four complete liquor stores. The ship is captained by Captain Scott Wilson.

The _Slug_ was an independent hauler. She has nine hundred survivors on board from Picon, and 1890 tons of medical supplies for delivery to the Scorpion shipyards. Her FTL drive was damaged and she just finished repairs from the _Trawler's Hope_. The _Slug_ is captained by Mick Owns from Sagittarian.

"The last ship in section one is the bulk carrier _Thompson's Light_. She was being sent to your father's scrap yard to be broken up. Your father had the engines pulled and new ones installed. She is now up and running.

"_Cassidy City_ was carrying a full set up for a new fabrication system for Valcin space docks. It's being installed in the _Star's__ Journey. _When set up, it will be able to turn out Viper VIIs for the colonial fleet as well as Raptors and other ships. They have opened the bow and turned it into a launching pad for the ships. Your father says she will be ready in three weeks.

Jason listened as Lori gave the descriptions of the remaining thirty-four bulk carriers, and then it was Sara's turn. He was shocked at the survivor count on the freighters, and he knew he had to make a way to relieve the crowding. With forty-five cargo ships holding an average of twenty-four hundred survivors, no wonder he had been getting the reports he had been given.

"Sir, we have identified nineteen of the Cylon agents. Under questioning they stated there are twelve models. They are called by numbers. We have identified the numbers two, three, four, five, six and eight in the fleet. We have three of the numbers twos, four number threes, three number fours, two number fives four number sixes, and the rest are eights. We have no idea what the ones, and sevens look like, and they told us that that the nine through twelve's are unknown to them. We pressed them, and used more powerful drugs, but wouldn't say who they are or what they look like. I believe them when they said they didn't know, as they said that their memory had been erased," Sara reported.

"I see, now what to do with them?" Jason mumbled to himself.

"Sir, they did tell us, if they die, their consciousness is downloaded into a new body. If it's true, I don't think we should kill them," Lori reported.

"Then we need to find a place to leave them once we leave here," Jason said as he stood up and added, "Ladies you did a great job. Thank you for the briefing, Commander Hays is waiting for you in your office. Here are my notes. When you get hers, we will compare them to see what we'll do next. For right now, we continue to repair the fleet and move the passengers around until we relieve the overcrowding. Now I have some family time coming up. If you need me, I'll be in my quarters with them."

"Yes, Admiral. If we need you, we'll call you. Remember, tomorrow morning we'll be going over the Refinery and the Station statuses," the young woman said.

"I know Lori, I'll see you then," Jason said and turned to the door on the side wall, and opened it. He went deeper into his quarters where he was almost knocked on his butt by his six-year-old daughter Olivia. Picking her up, he carried her to the couch and dropped the giggling six year old onto her back.

_**First Edited by Bill Lewis**_

_**Final Edit By TeNderLoin **_

Battlestar Galactica™ is a registered trademark and copyright (©) Glen Larson & the SciFi Channel. Thank you to the Battlestar Wiki and The Battlestar Galactica Role Playing Game, Battlestar Prometheus have proven invaluable for the information they contain. All material found in this story is for entertainment purposes. No copyright infringement should be inferred or is intended. Battlestar Sword and all its original characters and story lines presented here are the copyright (©) of their creator (©) 2010.


	9. Chapter 8

**Battlestar Sword**

**Chapter Eight**

**The Baseship**

(A large ship, like a carrier or a supply ship. In this case, it's a warship.)

**The Cylons were created by Man.**

**They were created to make life easier on the Twelve Colonies.**

**And then the day came when the Cylons decided to kill their masters.**

**After a long and bloody struggle, an armistice was declared.**

**The Cylons left for another world to call their own.**

**A remote space station was built...**

**...where Cylon and Human could meet and maintain diplomatic relations.**

**Every year, the Colonials send an officer.**

**The Cylons send no one.**

**No one has seen or heard from the Cylons in over forty years...**

**Until Now.**

**This is unedited**

**Battlestar Sword:**

**Unnamed hallway:**

**Six weeks after the destruction of the Colonies;**

Admiral Wallington was walking through his ship inspecting the repairs that had been made to his ship. His marine guards right behind him, as well as his aides. His thoughts were on what the next move of the fleet would be when they had to leave the pulsar's shadow. Stopping at one of the defense stations that had been installed, he inspected the sliding doors that slid out of the wall and the gun slits that would help defend the ship. Each set of walls could close off a corridor and he got to thinking and he realized he had made a major mistake.

Turning he looked at Lieutenant Sara Stark and said, "Sara, I frakked up. We need to have some way to take these positions back if the Cylons get control of them. You better have Colonel Horus think of a way to take them back…"

"Sir, Colonel Horus already has. Watch," she said as she walked over to the wall and pulled the handset off the wall. She looked at the number painted on the floor and walls, "This is Lieutenant Stark, patch me through internal defense."

Sara smiled at the confusion on the Admiral's face as she waited.

"Internal defense," came the reply after a few seconds.

"Test run of internal defense position for junction 36SB7365," Sara said into the handset.

"Test run initiated, watch your heads," the voice said as the area turned red.

Jason watched as the lights turned from white to red and then he heard a scrapping noise. Looking up, he saw the roof slide to reveal a three inch mesh. Before he could ask what was going on, the slides slid out of the wall blocking all four corridors and a dozen objects dropped from the roof and bounced when they hit floor. Ten seconds later a dozen more dropped and the hatch closed.

"Sir, you and everyone in this junction are now dead," Sara reported as the lights changed to white again.

"What the frak was that?" James asked.

"That was twenty-four high explosive grenades going off at one time. Agatha… I mean Colonel Horus says that is what is needed to destroy any Cylons who may take this position. Once the Cylons are down, Marines should be able to quickly take the position back from them."

"Good idea," James replied as the doors slid back and two marines came in and started picking up the balls. James watched the marines for a second and then he started walking again as the speakers mounted to the roof came on.

"Admiral, please contact the CIC."

James stopped at the next handset and pulled it off its cradle and said, "This is Wallington."

"Sir, we have a message from Raptor 0009 flown by Lucky Six. She was on long range recon of the pulsar cloud and she reports they found a battlefield. Her report says she has recovered parts from a MK-II Viper and parts from a Cylon Raider. She says the Raider is one of the old ones… Just a second, Sir."

Jason could hear Commander Sara Hays talking in the background 'Are you sure? OK thank you Lieutenant Vance. We will send out some of the insertion Raptors to see what they can find.'

The phone crackled as Commander Hays picked it up again and said, "Sir, new report from Lucky Six. She now reports she has found the remains of a first war Baseship. She is lying just inside the pulsar cloud and is split into two sections. I think we should send out some marines to check her out."

"Go ahead, but only four combat Raptors and four of the Mark VIII Vipers as well as three heavy lifters for intel. I'll be up in a few minutes," James ordered as he hung up the receiver.

Five minutes later, down in the portside hanger, forty marines ran across the hanger to the combat Raptors.

Captain Agatha Horus watched her marines running and shouted, "Ten to a ship. Hurry your asses!" Turning she walked to the lead raptor which has 1282 on its side.

"Captain, are you ready?" Lieutenant Helen 'Runner' Hastings asked.

"Yes we are," Agatha replied as she started climbing into the assault craft.

"Good, take off is in three minutes," Helen said as she followed the captain in to the small craft and went up to the cockpit. Sitting down, she started powering up the craft as the marines continued to climb in.

**Raptor 1282:**

**Athena's Heart:**

Helen brought her Raptor around and headed into the gas cloud. Her windshield polarized as the gasses and small ice particles along with the radiation pounded the ship. On a side monitor, the radiation count started climbing into the danger zone.

"Frak! We're going to need a decom when we land. Rad counts are climbing on the hull but staying positive inside the ship," she said to her new ECO.

"Runner, I agree, I hope none of those marines need to EVA once we land," Lieutenant Justin 'Soapy' Hawks said as he checked on the hull temp.

The ship settled onto the landing platform of the old warship. Around them were shattered raiders from a bygone era. Inside the raptor, the two pilots watched as the armor marines left the ship and headed into the darkness.

**1****st**** Marine Regiment**

**Inside the Base Ship**

Captain Agatha Horus led her squad towards the wrecked raiders. "Spread out, don't bunch up. Keep an eye on those raiders. There could be some toasters active in there. Squad three, you have security with six, set up the heavy weapons in case they are needed," she ordered as she neared the first of the wrecked raiders.

The marines spread out, checking the thirty old Cylon raiders. Some of the raiders were ripped open from the explosion. Some had destroyed toasters inside, but most were lying around the deck. Several marines broke off and removed the weapons from the machine's hands.

"Squad four and five, make sure these toasters are dead and disarmed. Squad two, head for the elevators," Agatha ordered and watched as her well drilled teams rushed forward to secure their positions. Behind them, several techs came out of the raptors and closed in on the downed Cylons to pull their memory cores while others went inside the raiders and started checking them over as several lifters came in with storage containers attached.

Agatha lead her squad deeper into the ship as the knuckle draggers started empting the raiders of their ordnance and fuel. Outside the ship, vipers flew around the crippled ship, watching for any sign of activity.

Ten minutes after landing, Agatha led her squad onto the main bridge and stopped. Looking around, she was confused because the bridge didn't look like the schematics she had for this class. To her left was a large tank with a human body in it. Dozens of cables were attached to it. To her right several tables stood with a clear wall that went to the roof. Around the tables were twenty human bodies that were slowly decomposing as well as some of the old toaster models as well as a three of the new versions that had fought back in the colonies. Across from her were the old computers that used to run the ship.

Walking towards the human like bodies, she noticed that five were black and male. Two were an older man, and the rest were woman. "What the frak?" Agatha said as she looked at the bodies that could be twins and triplets of each other.

"Sir, how could they all look alike?" Corporal Isaiah Mallon asked.

"I don't know. Get these bodies bagged and taken back to the Raptors for autopsies. Knuckle draggers, I want these computers ripped out and taken back to the ship," Agatha ordered.

She watched as her team went to work tearing out the computers while several of her marines bagged the corpses and carried them to the elevator. Several of the knuckle draggers disassembled the tank and carried it out as well as the three tables that turned out to be some type of modern computer interface station. Fifteen minutes into the salvage, gunfire shattered the silence.

"Where's that coming from?" she shouted into the helmet mic as voices started screaming that they were under attack.

"Under attack…"

"Send help!"

"Too many of them… Fall back to that last corridor!"

"Report! What squad are you?" Agatha ordered as she turned and ran for the elevators. She could hear the screams of her people dying from the gunfire coming through the com system.

"Squad nine, we're on the munitions deck, under attack by at least fifty of the bastards. Send help," came a new voice through the speakers.

"Sergeant Miles take your squad and get down there and help them out," Agatha ordered as she came to a stop at the elevators.

Sergeant Andrew Miles nodded his head at his boss and looked at the corporal he had been helping set up the demolition charge, "Corporal Eddings, finish setting up the charge and protect it with your life. Squad one, you're with me," he said as he led the ten men and women into the elevator.

More gunfire came over the link.

"Their flanking us, fall back. Cover each other," came the cry through the com unit.

"We got it!" came from behind Agatha and she turned and saw the three deck hands rushing towards her with the computer on its trolly.

"All units fall back and cover each other. Watch your sixes and flanks. Get that last computer into the elevator and let's go!" Agatha ordered as she stepped onto the elevator and held the door open for her people.

She watched as the deck hands dragged the computer onto the elevator and her squad was filing in when the three silver toasters sat up. Their hands started spinning as she opened fire. The first rounds ripped into the torso of the machine and it exploded while the remaining two opened up with their built in machine guns and bullets slammed into two of her marines as the doors started to close.

"Close the damn door!" Agatha shouted as she fired on the second toaster as it climbed to its feet.

The toaster went down with a bullet to its silver head. She was turning towards the third when she was hit. The round hit her in the chest, shattering her com radio. The hit flung her backwards and her head slammed into the wall and she saw stars. Shaking her head, she hurt from where the round had hit her chest and she tasted blood in her mouth from where she bit her tongue.

"Ma'am, are you ok?" Isaiah asked as he knelt beside his commanding officer.

"I'll live. Status report? My command radio is out," Agatha ordered as she tapped her helmet.

"Ryan and Jones are dead. We are dropping to the main landing bay now. All units are falling back under heavy attack. Main bay is still secure" he reported as he helped her to her feet.

"Ok, as soon as we come to as stop I want that computer loaded onto the cargo lifter as well as our dead. If we can take our dead with us, we will. Otherwise leave them. I would rather have live solders then dead bodies," she ordered as she changed the clip in her rifle.

"Listen up. That computer must get to the lifter. Make sure it does and I will donate a two bottles of Ambrosia to all of you to have a victory drink. Do you understand me?"

"YES MA'AM!" came the shout as the marines replaced their partially spent magazines.

"That goes for you knuckle draggers as well. I will also make sure you get three days off on the _Forest of Virgon_ for rest and relaxation. That goes for all of you. Can do?"

"Can do Ma'am," the men and woman replied.

The elevator came to a stop, and the remaining members of her squad rushed out to take cover among the wreckage of the raiders. Taking a quick look around, Agatha shouted, "Move it!"

She watched as three men pushed the cart out carrying the computer and was followed by the remaining deck crew carrying the dead marines. They were running towards the cargo lifter when gunfire opened up from above. Bullets bounced around the men running and one of the trolley pushers went down when his head exploded. Two of the accompanying marines started pushing the trolley and it flew across the damaged hanger bay.

She was turning towards the source of the incoming bullets when twenty-eight automatic rifles opened up around the raptors and wrecked Cylon raiders. Their targets were the Cylons walking down the walls from the fighter storage bay. Before she could order the heavy weapons to fire, the ten machine guns opened up and bullets started chewing the advancing toasters apart. She noticed that for every two silver toasters there were at least six of the bronze ones.

Agatha sighted on one of the Cylons and fired her first explosive round as the remaining elevators came down and their doors opened up. Her surviving marines stumbled out of them carrying their dead and wounded past here. Several trolleys went past carrying metal boxes and crates to the nearest Heavy lifter.

Bullets hit two of the knuckle draggers and one went down dead while the other was rolling around holding his hands to his left leg. Blood was spraying everywhere as three marines ran over to them. Two grabbed the wounded deck hand while the third yanked the body of the other up and over his shoulder and took off for the waiting lifter.

"Fall back to the Raptors. Tell those Heavy lifters to get the frak out of her!" Agatha shouted as she fired on another group of advancing toasters.

One of the combat Raptors lifted off and turned towards the approaching enemy. Its nose mounted suppression cannons opened fire and the wall exploded around the advancing toasters. Several fell to the deck and exploded when they were hit. Dozens of the Cylon war machines dropped from twenty feet up and landed on their feet, their built in weapons blazing death around them as they advanced on the colonial positions.

Before Agatha could shout again, several rocket grenades hit near the toasters still on the wall and they were blown off when their magnetic feet failed. One took a direct hit and blew apart as the marines fled back to the remaining Raptors. Agatha noticed one of the ships was shredded wreckage from the hundreds of bullets that had hit it. Its surviving crewmembers had bailed and ran for another Raptor. She pulled a grenade from her harness and primed it as she neared the crippled ship. Tossing the grenade inside, she and the rest of her squad ran for the remaining Raptors as the crippled one exploded behind her. Pushing her marines up into the Raptor in front of her, she turned and fired her rifle at the closing Cylons. Two blew up when they were hit, but ten more stepped up to take their place as she stepped back onto the ramp.

"Fire up those engines!" Agatha shouted over the firing of her rifle.

Pain erupted in her mind as she was hit in her left leg and she fell backwards onto the ramp. Feeling hands on her armor shoulders she held the trigger down and emptied the clip at the advancing toasters. Just as she was pulled into the ship, destruction rained down on the Cylons as three of the Mark-VIII vipers drifted into the bay and opened up with their main weapons.

"Close the hatch," someone shouted as the ship lifted up.

Agatha was dragged to one of the bunks where she was strapped down as the Raptor banked and darted away. Behind her, the remaining air wing followed.

"Casualty count," she said as she hissed in pain.

"Ma'am, we have ten KIA, fifteen WIA and five MIA. We also lost ten deck hands as well. We recovered nine of the twenty killed in action. Sergeant Kennedy and Lieutenant Bates were killed in action and not recovered," Isaiah reported as they started peeling the armor off her leg.

"Thank you, Sergeant. I'm promoting you to Kennedy's position; Ensign Grades is promoted to Lieutenant Bates squad. Get me after action reports and videos. I want to know what went right, what went wrong and how we can improve what we did."

"Yes, Ma'am, I'll get right on it," Isaiah replied as they pulled the plate off and the medic went to work on the wound.

Agatha laid back on the bed and was just about to close her eyes when a bright flash caught her attention.

"Scratch one baseship," came from the speakers mounted on the bulkhead, "Heading for home now. ETE fifteen minutes."

The armada of small ships turned for home with a dozen Vipers covering them. Inside the ships, the survivors thought of their friends left behind or killed in action and once more depression settled into the rookie pilots who had joined up just weeks before the attack.

_**First Edited by **_

_**Final Edit By **_

Battlestar Galactica™ is a registered trademark and copyright (©) Glen Larson & the SciFi Channel. Thank you to the Battlestar Wiki and The Battlestar Galactica Role Playing Game, Battlestar Prometheus have proven invaluable for the information they contain. All material found in this story is for entertainment purposes. No copyright infringement should be inferred or is intended. Battlestar Sword and all its original characters and story lines presented here are the copyright (©) of their creator (©) 2010.


	10. Chapter 9

**Battlestar Sword**

**Chapter Nine**

**Venture Forth**

(a risky or daring undertaking that has no guarantee of success. forward in time, place, degree, or order)

**The Cylons were created by Man.**

**They were created to make life easier on the Twelve Colonies.**

**And then the day came when the Cylons decided to kill their masters.**

**After a long and bloody struggle, an armistice was declared.**

**The Cylons left for another world to call their own.**

**A remote space station was built...**

**...where Cylon and Human could meet and maintain diplomatic relations.**

**Every year, the Colonials send an officer.**

**The Cylons send no one.**

**No one has seen or heard from the Cylons in over forty years...**

**Until Now.**

**This is unedited**

**Valcin Station;**

**Owner's office;**

Victor Wallington was sitting at his desk, in front of him was three forty inch monitor, The central monitor held the images of a flight pod as well as two flattop repair ships that had been mounted to the bottom of the flight pod. Using his mouse, he dragged the image of a sub-light engine on the right monitor and dragged it to the center and dropped it under the image of the diagram and then zoomed in. Finding the section he had prepared for the mounting on the image, he attached it to the rear flattop. Rotating the image, he grabbed a second sub-light engine and repeated the process. On the left screen were the new ships schematics he had finalized the day before.

Rotating the image again, he checked the disposition of the flak mounts and added a few more to the sides. When finished the carrier would have launching facilities on both sides of the flight pod and carry one hundred and twenty vipers along with twenty raptors and ten refueling tankers for midair refueling. The crew would be around nine hundred for the ship with one hundred and fifty pilots as well as one hundred marines for internal defenses. The first flattop would be used to manufacture small craft and living quarters while the rear flat top would have the engine room and supply storage. Finished with the design, he started printing up the construction plans for the new carrier using the printers recovered from a printing company on Memnon.

Reaching over to the edge of his desk, he hit a button.

"Yes, Sir," came the request.

"Get Mark Phillips up here A.S.A.P.," Victor ordered.

"Yes, Sir," came the reply.

Victor leaned back in his chair and looked at the image of the new carrier and then started typing on his keypad and saved the image. Opening a text file he started typing out his orders for the building of the new carrier, he just needed a name for her. Stopping his typing he started thinking as the door opened and his secretary came in and set a cup of coffee down.

"Here you go, Sir, and Mark said he's on the way up now,"

"Thank you Victoria," Victor said and then shouted out in glee, "that's it. She'll be called the _Victory_, for that's what we're hoping for," as he started typing again as the door opened.

"Wanted to see me boss?" the construction manager asked.

"Yes, got a job for you and the wreckage of the Thor. As you know the rebuilding of the Thor is going to take two years at most with having to rebuild the central section of the ship. So with those thoughts, I'm swiping her flight pod, and two of her sub-light engines and this is the plan I came up with. Using the _Griffin _and_ Hydra_ along with the flight pod and the two sub-light engines I have come up with this," Victor said as he gestured to the main monitor.

Mark Phillips stepped around to the side of the desk and looked at the central monitor showing a new type of ship. He watched as the image changed and then fighters started launching from both sides, "a single pod carrier. Could work, have you figured out how long to build?"

"I think about four months due to the automation of the docks. We need to heavily modify one of Griffin and gut her engine room. The Hydra will keep her manufacturing ability and become housing and command and control for the ship. As you can see, she has no heavy KEWS just medium and lights. As you know the medium KEWS are flack launchers so I added a few more then the Mercury class flight pods carried to defend the ship and placed three of them in the stern incase the Cylons try to land."

"Looks like you increased the point defense as well," Mark said as he reached for the mouse and started zooming in on the ship.

"I did, by a factor of three," Victor replied.

"What's the fighter complement?"

"One hundred twenty Vipers, twenty raptors is what I'm shooting for," Victor said as he started typing and the image of the ship blew apart to show the interior of the flight pod.

"More launcher as well… I can do this. Is that the plans?" Mark asked as the printers across the room stopped printing.

"Yes, go ahead and take them down to bay four and get to work. Have Marion over and personal assign the people you need to start building. I hope to launch her in four months if possible," Victor ordered.

"I'll get right on it boss," Mark said as he crossed the room and gathered up the fifty blue prints and walked to the door.

"Mark, I emailed the plans to your computer as well," Victor said as Mark walked out of the room.

Admiral Jason Wallington watched the Dradis screen with a critical eye. He was counting the blips on the screen showing the trail of Raptors, Heavy lifters and shuttles as they flew into range. He noticed several were flashing the red tinge of damage, he also noticed that several of the Raptors were missing.

"Mission report," he ordered.

"Sir, I have the report coming in from Raptor 1282 right now," the com officer replied as she started writing on her clipboard. Several minutes later the young woman stood up and turned around, "Sir, here is the damages. Hunter, reports a successful insertion that met heavy resistance. They suffered nineteen dead, twenty-seven wounded and none are missing. She reports three raptors lost with six more damaged. Computer cores recovered from the Baseship as well as eighteen hundred missiles recovered, of them, eight hundred and twenty are mounted with twenty kiloton nuclear warheads. Deck hands recovered over eighty thousand rounds of light KEW rounds from the Raiders ammo storage bunkers," reported Ensign Lila Bays.

"Ensign Bays please send the following. The injured are to be taken to the _Comfort_. Ammo and missiles are to be shuttled to the _Archon_ for adaption to our launchers. Have the computers taken to the science ship _Duster_. Tell them I want those computers isolated from all other computers and I want the information on them yesterday," Jason ordered.

"Yes, Sir. Sending your orders now," the reply came.

"Colonel Hays bring your fleet reports to my day cabin, please," Jason ordered and walked off the bridge as he said, "Lieutenant Billings you have command."

Jason walked the short distance to his office and was sitting down as the door opened.

"Come in Colonel, and give me your report," Jason said as he started reading the ships reports.

Colonel Hays came to a stop, one meter from the desk and came to attention, "Sir, reporting as ordered.

James gave a sloppy salute back and said, "go ahead. Give me the status of the fleet? Can we start jumping again?" Jason asked as he looked over at his second in command.

"Sir, your father says he needs two more days before he recommends jumping. He wants to finish repairs on the last eight liners and get their systems up and running," Colonel Sara Hays replied after glancing at the clipboard in her hand, and then added, "He also reports the _Aspiration_ and _Craving_ have had their FTL drives restored and that instead of scraping the _Desire_, he is going to rebuild her. He says we need all the defense ships we can."

Jason nodded as the thought of having three more fast frigates as escorts. The fleet was dangerously short of them, "Good, have personal start putting a crew together for the _Desire_ and the _Aspiration_ and _Craving_ are to cover the portside of the fleet. We're a little thin on that side. What about Vipers and our small craft?"

"Sir, we have twelve hundred and thirty-two in flying condition with pilots and scattered throughout the fleet. Another ninety-seven have been taken off line for maintenance. That is a mixed bag of Mark II, IVs and VII. We have a reserve force of three hundred and fourteen pilots for the Vipers. For Raptors we have ninety-six in flying condition and twenty-one down checked. Heavy Lifters, we have two hundred and twelve with ten down checked. Shuttles we have two hundred and fifteen normal shuttles, seventy combat shuttles and fifty-seven medical shuttles. Refulers we are very short on, only seventeen in the whole fleet," Sara reported.

"That's a good size defense force. I am assuming that all have had the CNP stripped from them and the older copy installed," Jason said and then asked, "How are we for munitions for the Vipers."

Sara flipped through the papers and replied, "We have just under five million rounds of Light KEW ammunition for the fighters and the CWIS system. We are adding five thousand rounds a day from the station and a thousand from each Battlestar. We should be good for several intense fights."

"Good, what about the bunker containers I designed?" Jason asked.

"Your father has twenty under construction and sixteen have been deployed to eight of the container haulers for defense. He went with the CWIS system because the missile launchers are to slow," Sara said as she folded the papers back.

"I see," Jason replied as he signed the paper in front of him and asked, "Anything else I need to know about?"

Sara nodded but realized that her boss didn't see it, "Yes, your father has come up with a new ship design. He wants to take the flight pod we recovered from the _Thor_ and use two of the crippled flattop repair ships and attach them to the flight pod with several of the _Thor's_ sub light engines. He plans to turn her into an auxiliary carrier for the fighters. She will have thirty-four medium twin KEWs and when he's finished she will put up a barrage of flak that will rival one of the _Mercury_," Colonel Hays reported.

"Sounds good, tell my father if he can do it, then do it. It's his repair bays," Jason ordered.

"He's already started and he's named her the _Victory_ class," Sara said.

"The Victory huh, well hopefully it will come to be," Victor replied.

"So help us all," Sara whispered out.

"Is that all?" Victor asked.

"Yes, Sir."

"Then you're dismissed," Victor said.

Victor watched as his second in command left the room and then turned back to the everlasting chore of command. The paperwork.

**Baseship 001;**

**Polmar sector;**

Cavil watched as the _Galactica_ vanished into FTL with her small fleet of survivors. For the last thirty-six hours they had followed the _Galactica_ making her jump continuously to use up her fuel and tire out her crew.

"Cavil, we just received a report from Cable. He reports they lost the Sword group. He has stopped all his ships and sending out heavy raiders to search the nearby systems. He's requesting more ships," reported Sara Six a number six model of the Cylons.

"He as thirty Baseships and forty support ships, how many more does he need?" Cavil demanded and then snarled out, "Tell him no. He has to use what he has. We cannot spare anymore."

"As you command," Sara reported.

"Location of the Galactica found. Preparing to jump," a number two said.

"_The sword has hidden, but soon she'll return with a cleaving blade. Three by the power nine. The heart shall beat again… jump,"_ said the command Hybrid,

"Oh shut up," Cavil snapped out.

"_Jump!"_

_**First Edited by **_

_**Final Edit By **_

Battlestar Galactica™ is a registered trademark and copyright (©) Glen Larson & the SciFi Channel. Thank you to the Battlestar Wiki and The Battlestar Galactica Role Playing Game, Battlestar Prometheus have proven invaluable for the information they contain. All material found in this story is for entertainment purposes. No copyright infringement should be inferred or is intended. Battlestar Sword and all its original characters and story lines presented here are the copyright (©) of their creator (©) 2010.


End file.
